In The Mist Lies Death
by Rinean
Summary: X-Men/Harry Potter/Silent Hill crossover. When the students at the X-Men's school go on a field trip, they end up crash landing on a strip of abandoned highway, covered in a thick fog. Harry and friends soon find themselves in the same place...please R&R!
1. Chapter 1

**If I could find a place for Maximum Ride or Twilight, believe me, I'd use them too. Unfortunately, I don't want Fang getting killed, and vampires don't die easily enough. So, sorry Twilighters and Flock Fans. Sucks for you.**

**I do not own Silent Hill (it belongs to Konami) and I do not own the X-Men. (They belong to Marvel Comics.) I do however own Amera Walker, Thomas(just mentioned in this fic) and Khadrim. This story is based around Silent Hill 2. And X-Men: Evolution. You all remember the episode from season two where Mr. McCoy took some of the students on a field trip to the redwood forest? Well, this story starts with another one of these trips, about a year after the first. However, I have taken some liberties, expanding the school to a more movie-like state, with more students and a bigger library and such. Don't be hatin'! Enjoy.**

**This is kind of a sequel to my old x-men evolution story (that no one will ever, ever read), where Amera and Pietro dated for a while before… it's just a bit important …**

**I don't own Harry Potter either. Man, what I would do with the cash if I did… Richer than the Queen of England… Bah. THERE ARE DEATHLY HALLOWS SPOILERS AHEAD!!! If you haven't read Deathly Hallows by now… What, have you been living under a rock?**

**IMPORTANT! Amara and Amera are two different people. Yeppers. Okay, on with the show.**

* * *

**Chapter One**

Kitty slammed her book down in front of Amara and Jean. This was not very smart on her part, since this table was situated in the library, where many other students were studying. Jean wasn't, since she had already graduated, but she would be heading to college the following spring. Kitty growled beneath her breath. "I, like, can't believe this!" Kitty groaned as she sat down. Many of the students in the library who had been glaring at her now returned to their work.

"Kitty, what's up?" Jean asked, placing a bookmark in her book and setting it on the table. Amara looked over the top of her history text.

"I've gotta go on another one of those stupid field trips again!" Kitty said huffily.

"I thought you always got good grades," Amara pointed out.

"I do!" Kitty said. "But apparently, since I suggested the other one in the first place, Mr. McCoy wants me to go again…" Kitty put her chin on the edge of the table and closed her eyes. When she opened them, she saw Logan standing between Jean and Amara. Amara had returned to studying and Jean busied herself with her book. "Uh, hi, Mr. Logan…"

"How many times do I gotta tell ya, Half-pint, that the library's for studyin', not bangin' books around?" Logan said with his gruff voice, adding a growl at the end. He had been engrossed in a certain book, and he hated being interrupted.

"Sorry, Mr. Logan," Kitty said sheepishly, shrinking in her chair. Logan stalked away, mumbling something under his breath that sounded like "ungrateful brats."

"Vhat vas that about?" Kitty turned to see Kurt and Amera approach the table holding hands. They both had rumpled clothes and disheveled hair, which implied that they had been making out in the back of the library again. Amara ignored her studying again, and Jean put her book back down. The trio sitting at the table raised an eyebrow at the couple. "Don't ask, I already asked you a question!"

Kitty sighed. "I was just, like, upset about Mr. McCoy having me go on the trip again."

"So? We have to go too," Amera said.

"That's because you two make out in class and don't do the work," Jean said. "That's why you've got the bad grade."

"The point is that ve're going too," Kurt said.

"Whoopee," Kitty said sarcastically, twirling her finger in the air.

*******

Since being made a part of the X-Men, Bobby had had a hard time keeping his grades up. But that wasn't his fault, was it? He sat on the X-jet, watching the clouds pass below them out the window. He'd had to go on the trip last year too, and that was before the X-Men. How was he supposed to keep up?

Ray sat behind Bobby, watching out the window as well. He wasn't very happy about the fact that he had to leave his boyfriend, Thomas, behind at the Institute. Khadrim sat behind him, wondering how the hell he had a bad grade at all. And sadly, it turned out that Amara had to go on the trip as well, but she was stuck sitting in front of Amera and Kurt, who were swapping spit in the back seat.

Suddenly, a strange grinding sound echoed through the jet, and then it started to shake. "What the-" Hank began to work the controls, but when nothing worked, he cried to the students, "Buckle in!" All of the frightened students obeyed just as the plane started to plummet.

*******

Hank had somehow managed to crash land on an old stretch of highway, and luckily, no one was injured. But it was obvious to all of them that the plane wasn't going anywhere. They couldn't see anything very well; there was a mysterious fog that covered everything like a thick blanket. "Guys, vhere are ve?" Kurt asked, rubbing his head while helping Amera up from the ground. He squinted around, and could see a sign in the distance, but couldn't make out what it said.

"I think that sign right there probably means there's a town nearby," Hank said, walking toward it cautiously. He could barely make it out. Silent Hill, 1 mi. "Everyone grab the food and emergency supplies, it's about a mile to the town!"

The kids obeyed and then they headed toward Silent Hill. Everyone stayed huddled in a tight group since they couldn't see anything through the fog. "This is some totally freaky fog," Kitty whimpered.

"Oh, come on," Bobby snorted. "It's just a little fog."

"A little?" Khadrim retorted.

"Okay, a lot of fog. Nothing to freak out about." Bobby said as they trudged still down the street.

"Shouldn't we call back to the Institute?" Amara asked from her spot next to Hank.

"Good idea," he said, then pulled his communicator out. When he turned it on, static was the only thing that came through. "Well, I guess not."

Amera was starting to freak out now. None of this added up. She clung to Kurt's left arm like her life depended on it, staring down at her own communicator, wondering whether or not it would be the same as Hank's.

The road was long, but the group of mutants didn't slow down. But something was bothering Hank; he hadn't touched his communicator since he had turned it on and strapped it to his belt, hoping to get some feed from somewhere, but the static it emitted was getting louder on its own as they neared the town.

Bobby groaned angrily, getting a headache from the constant noise. "Can't you turn that thing off?"

"We have to keep it on so we know if we can get some transmission," Hank replied, but still the static grew louder.

Amara screamed.

The others all turned to face her, then all of them backed away. She had seen some sort of creature crawling out from under an old, run down truck. It looked like nothing any of them had seen before, a headless torso with one arm that looked as though it had been sewn together haphazardly. Blood was spattered all over it. "What the hell?" Bobby yelled, stepping back, tripping on a rock and falling to the ground.

The corpse pulled itself into an upright position, and Kitty hurled when they could see its underside. The stomach area had been ripped open and stretched back, revealing bloody innards, ribs, and a human head with its eyes sewn shut. There was almost no time to react as they were all frozen in terror, and the creature's mouth opened wide. It spewed vomit all over the nearest person, who happened to be Kurt, who yelled in pain. The vomit appeared to be acidic, and it was burning his flesh. He grabbed the first aid kit from Ray and wrapped his arm in gauze. Ray lost it and proceeded to electrocute the creature. "Take this, you sick son-of-a-bitch!" The torso fell backwards and started to shake violently, then stopped moving for a moment, then sprang back to life, crawling toward him as quick as it could. "You're not dead?"

Khadrim growled and stalked forward. He pushed Ray back with his left arm as he turned his right arm into a sword. He hacked the creature to bloody bits, sending blood flying and splattering his face and leather jacket. There was no way the corpse would be able to move again after that.

Khadrim stopped and stared at the pile of meat on the ground as the sword disappeared and his hand returned. Amera chuckled nervously behind him. "I think you got him."

Then Hank noticed something. "That's strange," he muttered.

"Uh, yeah, we were just attacked by a dead thing!" Amara said, trying not to throw up.

"No, it's the communicator," he said, holding it up. "I think that the creature may have caused the static. Perhaps if there are more of them, this will give us a head's up." He sighed as he thought of a way to persuade them to continue to the city, although he knew that they had figured out by now that the creatures were probably from there in the first place. If we survive this, he thought, you're all getting straight A's till graduation.

They walked extremely careful after they figured there was a possibility that more of those creatures existed. After a few more long and terrifying minutes, they were in Silent Hill. A look around told them that they were on the corner of Wiltse and Saunders. "This fog is too darn thick!" Bobby said, reaching out cautiously so as to avoid running into any walls.

Hank tried squinting into the fog, but could barely see the few people around him, Ray and Amara. "Since we can't see each other, let's form a tighter group, alright?" he said, and unfortunately he could only just see Ray, Amara, and Bobby, back from the fog, pressed closer. "One, two, three…" Hank tapped the tops of his student's heads to make sure they were all there. His hand reached into nothingness after the number three. He pulled those three close to him. "Where are the others!?" he said to no one in particular, gazing into the cloudy darkness. "Kurt? Khadrim? Amera? Kitty?"

*******

"Let's just, like, find the bus depot and get back home," Kitty said as she shivered in the darkness. "Okay Mr. McCoy?" There was no answer. "Mr. McCoy?" Kitty spun around quickly and found only Kurt, Amera, and Khadrim, who all ran into each other at her abrupt stop. "Where's Mr. McCoy?"

"I thought he was right with us," Amera said through chattering teeth.

"Now that you mention it… We're the only ones here," Khadrim said, looking around. He was the only one who didn't seem at all fazed by their situation.

"You mean we're in this dark, spooky fog alone?" Amera asked, staring at Khadrim. Her hand shot down and grabbed onto Kurt's three-fingered one, squeezing tightly. "Wh-where did they go?"

"I think the correct question to ask would be 'Where did we go?'" Khadrim pointed out.

"Do you think ve should turn on a communicator?" Kurt asked.

It seemed as though in only a matter of seconds Khadrim had been chosen as the unofficial leader. "Yeah, I'll turn mine on…" He reached down to his belt, where his communicator was located under his jacket, and turned the switch. Instantly there was a loud static sound. "Oh shit."


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

"Oh shit."

"Ray!" Hank scolded.

"I'm sorry, Mr. McCoy, but this is an 'oh shit' situation!" Ray said.

The small group of would-be X-Men was backed up into a wall, surrounded by creatures that were sutured and sewn into terrible figures. They all were bloody and battered, but each had a different face. It looked as though the residents of this town had somehow become these creatures of horror, zombies, if you will. There were at least ten of them and only four of our stranded mutants.

Hank sighed. "Fair enough." He looked at the monsters, and, with a growl, lunged at the nearest one.

The fight was surprisingly short, but strenuous. After catching their breath and bandaging their wounds, they sat for a moment up against the brick wall. "What are we going to do now?" Bobby asked.

"We're going to die!" Amara cried, butting her head against the wall in agony.

"We're not going to die," Hank said, although he did have his doubts. "We're going to keep moving, and find a way out of this town, and-"

"No, we aren't going to get out of here, we're going to keep running away from these things, trying to survive until we either run out of food and starve to death or get eaten by those flesh eating monsters!" Amara ranted, flailing her arms about. "Then we're gonna come back as the monsters again and we'll eat the others, unless they've already been eaten-"

Bobby grabbed her arms, forcing them down to the cement, and kissed her to stop her flow of speech. Amara stared at him as he pulled slowly away. "We're not going to die," he whispered. "We'll find someone around here and get their help, and then we're going to leave Silent Hill." Amara stared a moment longer before throwing her arms around his neck and sobbing into his chest. "I'm scared too, but we've gotta fight. We've gotta keep going."

*******

Khadrim turned the communicator back off and forced the other three to move back slowly and duck to the ground. There through the fog they could just make out the shadow of a large creature. "Don't make a sound," Khadrim said, almost inaudibly.

The creature's shadow glided across the fog, not getting closer. With every step it took, there was a long scraping noise, like metal being dragged along the ground. Kitty covered her face in her arms, Kurt shut his eyes tight. Amera's eyes were wide open in terror, her mouth opened as if to scream and Khadrim's hand quickly covered it. She looked at him out of the corner of her eyes and he mouthed "Shh."

After an eternity of silence, the creature was gone and Amera whispered, "What the hell was that!?"

"I don't vant to know," Kurt answered, helping Amera up off of the cold ground.

"Maybe we could, like, get into a building and keep an eye out for the others?" Kitty suggested. "Like, out a window or something?"

"Yeah," Khadrim said thoughtfully. "Yeah, we should be safe inside." He ushered them toward the nearest building, an apartment complex. The door creaked loudly, which scared them all half to death, and they walked inside. "Now, there's a window right here-" he stopped mid-sentence as he turned to find the window he had seen outside was boarded up on the inside. "Damn it."

Suddenly there was a creaking from the floor above them, up a staircase. Kitty shrieked and jumped behind Khadrim in fright. Then something fell from the second floor, which nearly landed on Khadrim's head. "Who's there!" Khadrim demanded.

"Who wants to know?" the person shouted back.

The voice was one that Kitty recognized in an instant. "Lance?" She stood up and walked back out from behind Khadrim. "Lance, is that you?"

"Kitty?" Lance's head poked over the rail of the second floor landing before he dashed down the stairs to her. "What are you doing here!?"

"The jet crash-landed right outside of town…" Kitty said. "Why are you here?"

"We were headed toward the forest, going camping, see? But the jeep fizzled out when we got into the fog." Lance said. "What are those monsters?"

"How should I know?" Kitty asked. "Where are the other guys?"

"They're in an apartment upstairs. Opened a window in there to keep an eye out for people…" He looked at the floor like he had lost all hope of rescue. "They're too chicken to come out of there because of the monsters in some of the halls."

"What? There's monsters in here too?" Khadrim asked, stepping forward. "Then let's get going to the safe room." He turned to tell Kurt and Amera to go up before him so he could keep an eye on their backs, but they weren't there. "Damn! They kept walking!" Khadrim said. He started towards the hall beneath the stairs, but was stopped by a sudden tugging at his shirt.

"Come on, Khadrim, we need you." Kitty said. He could just make out the pleading look on her face in the dark.

"Damn," he said again, and he headed up the stairs with Kitty and Lance.

*******

"So where do you think they could have gone?" Ray asked as they walked through the fog.

"I do not know, Ray." Hank said. They had gone down three streets already, hoping to find a way out of the god forsaken town, only to find their way blocked by chain-link fences. And now they had reached another one, and, according to the static from the communicator, beyond it was another monster. Hank sighed. "Mark it off," he told Amara, and they started back down the road.

Amara obeyed and unfolded the map they had found in the glove compartment of an old car. She marked the dead end with her silver gel pen, the only writing utensil any of them had on them since the crash, then put it back in her pocket. "Maybe there's a bright side to this… If all the ways out are blocked, we're sure to run into the others, right? They can't have left."

"Amara, think about what you just said. We're trapped, and the others are trapped, in a city that's infested with freaking zombies!" Ray said, then sat on the curb of the sidewalk. The others stopped as well so they wouldn't lose him. "Ah, my feet are killing me…"

"Well, that's what you get for wearing sandals all the time." Bobby said. His temper was starting to rise, frustration from their predicament getting to him. "You look like a Queer Eye reject."

Ray jumped up from the curb and rounded on Bobby. "Did you just call me a queer?"

"That's enough," Hank said, then something silver caught his eye. He walked over to what turned out to be a key ring that stated "It's hard to think of you as the end result of millions of years of evolution" and had a single key attached to it. Next to where it had been on the ground lay a wallet, which he bent to pick up. The argument behind him was still raging.

"Did you just call me a fag?"

"Yeah, that's what you are, isn't it? Gay boy?"

"I said that's enough!"

*******

"It's really dark and creepy in here, guys," Amera said with a slight whimper as they walked down the hallway. She couldn't see anything. Her arm was wrapped around Kurt's, nearly cutting off his circulation. "Guys?" She stopped and expected Khadrim and Kitty to run into them, but nothing happened and neither of them answered. "Not again…"

"They've got to be in the lobby, right?" Kurt said.

"I damn well hope so," Amera said, and they started back. When they reached the end, the door that had been open before was mysteriously closed. Amera grabbed the doorknob and tried to turn it. It wouldn't budge. She yanked and pulled, but to no avail.

Kurt pulled on the door too, then teleported to the other side in the lobby. He tried opening the door from this side, pushing and pulling, but it still wouldn't move. He noticed Khadrim and Kitty were nowhere to be seen, but didn't say anything so Amera wouldn't panic. "You're gonna have to go under!" he called to her.

Amera sighed and leaned her head on the door and closed her eyes. "We've only got a little bit of water, and we're going to need it later! I can't go using my powers because I'll get dehydrated, and-"

She was cut off by Kurt teleporting beside her, grabbing her, and then teleporting back to the lobby. "Th-thank you." She gave him a little kiss. "Well, I guess we had better turn on a communicator," she said, then turned hers on. Static. She looked at Kurt with terror in her eyes, then said, "Run!"

*******

"Let me get this straight," Pietro said angrily as he glared at Lance. "You say you're going to find weapons and food, but you're gone for all of five minutes, and you bring back your dumb girlfriend?"

"Hey!" Kitty said. "Shut up, you… you… nerf herder!" They stared at her for a moment, then burst out laughing, even Khadrim. She shot a glare at him and he stopped instantly. "You know, you're all up in Lance's face about finding me, but what if you had been the one out there and you ran into Amera?"

Pietro raised his eyebrows. "Amera's here? Now? Where? Is she safe? I bet she's with that stupid elf…" He trailed off when he realized the others were all staring at him. "I mean, why should I care, she's my ex-girlfriend, remember?"

Everyone jumped when something pounded on the door.

*******

They kept walking, Bobby and Ray standing on either side of Hank. Hank was looking through the wallet he had found. It had belonged to a woman, Sarah Jameson, age 43, according to her driver's license. She had twenty-four dollars and a coupon for the local flower shop. Hank kept searching for some type of clue as to what the key could belong to. Then he found a security badge from where she worked - the hospital. Well, he thought, the keys definitely don't belong to a car… so maybe… "Amara, is there a hospital on that map?"

"Why, are you hurt?" she asked as she pulled the map from her pocket. "Yeah, but it's on the other side on the blockade on Saul Street."

"Well, maybe there are some alleyways or side streets?" Ray asked, peering from his place beside Hank.

"Um, the only way to get to an alley is by going through a building. Everything else was blocked." Amara answered. "But there's a large chance that all the buildings are locked up."

"Well, we're gonna have to take that chance." Hank said. "I think this key might belong to that hospital."

*******

Khadrim started toward the door. "Take the stick!" Pietro said, tossing a wooden plank with sharp, bent nails stuck in one end at Khadrim's feet.

Khadrim looked at him with an eyebrow raised. "Oh please," he said, then transformed his right arm into a deadly sword. He continued his way to the door, lifted his arm, ready to strike, and opened it.

"Jesus Christ!" Amera yelled at the sight of Khadrim's blade mere inches away.

"Sorry," Khadrim said with a shrug, reverting his arm into an arm once again.

"About time ve found you!" Kurt said as he and Amera entered the apartment. "Ve vent through about fifty rooms, half of vich had monsters…" He shuddered.

Pietro smiled when he saw Amera walk in safely. "You're okay!" he cried, then proceeded to dance in place. "I mean, uh… Great, more of you X-freaks?" Amera and Kurt glared at him. "So… now what?"

Amera and Kurt made their way to the gathering of mutants on the floor, Khadrim right behind them. Only seconds after they sat down, there was a second pounding on the door, louder than Amera's knocking. The entire group stood and crowded up against the wall, as far away as possible from the door. Khadrim was at the front, ready to protect the others, since he was the strongest. Kitty grabbed the stick, then stood back up into Lance's arms. Amera was hiding behind Kurt, which didn't do much good, since he was four inches shorter than she was.

Khadrim slowly turned his arm into a sword again, then stalked towards the door. "Alright, you bastard, come in and play…" he said gruffly, a wicked grin on his face.

*******

"You ever think that the key is actually to that chick's house and we're heading into imminent danger for no apparent reason?" Ray asked as they climbed the front steps to an unmarked building. They entered into darkness, which they had figured would be the case.

"Ugh, it smells in here," Amara said, plugging her nose. "What is that?"

"That would be the smell of alcohol," Hank replied. "Keep up that attitude toward it and you'll never need to worry about becoming an alcoholic like Logan." Hank scratched his head. "Apparently this place used to be a bar," he said as he pulled his hand from his hair. He could feel something cold and wet on it. "Bobby, flashlight."

Bobby had been looking around, wanting to maybe find a salvageable beer or two. He obediently brought Hank the flashlight. Hank shined it on his hand. It was blood. Ray walked over to see the commotion. "What the hell happened?" he asked.

"Watch the language."

"Sorry."

"Well, I'm not injured," Hank said. "Perhaps it got on me from the fight earlier."

"Ick," Ray said as something dripped onto his closely shaved head. He wiped it off with a finger, then examined it under the flashlight as well; it was blood also. "What the…" All four of them looked up at the ceiling. "Holy-" Ray whispered.

"Language, Ray."

"-Crap."

The ceiling had been soaked through with blood. Amara paled then vomited behind the nearest table. "There must be a heck of a lot of blood for something like that to happen…" Bobby observed as he took Amara's hand.

"Hey, that should be the door to the alley, right?" Ray asked when he noticed a door in the back of the room. He jogged over to it and gave it a good tug. He looked down to see that it was locked tight with a combination lock, but the dial was missing completely. "No way! The lock is broken!"

"There's probably a fire escape upstairs that empties into the alley," Hank said, and he started toward the stairs.

"Whoa, you expect us to go up to that bloodbath?" Ray exclaimed.

"Would you like to try getting through this building and be that much closer to getting out of town, or go looking for another building that hasn't been locked up, which could take hours?" Hank asked.

"Uh…" Ray said with a blank stare.

"Let's go," Bobby said, not giving him a chance to answer. He grabbed the front of Ray's shirt, and the four of them headed up the staircase.

*******

Khadrim threw open the door and jumped back. He backed up as a huge worm-like creature with extremely large teeth squeezed its way into the room. The others were still gathered in a group in the corner, next to the window. Even Toad's smell wasn't bothering them at that moment. "Get out the window," Khadrim commanded them.

"But Khadrim-" Amera started.

"Go!" he shouted. "Break the damn window and go!"

They figured the only reason Khadrim was still alive was that the monster could not see or hear and depended on its sense of smell. Pietro wasted no time in breaking the glass panes and stepping out onto the narrow ledge. "Oh yeah," he shouted. "This is much better!"

"Shut up and go already!" Kurt said, giving him a push. Pietro wobbled for a second, then glared at Kurt after regaining balance.

The others followed, their backs flat against the wall as they made their way along the side of the building to the nearest fire escape.

Amera stayed behind. "Khadrim, come on!" she pleaded.

Khadrim was stalling. "Go Amera!"

"We can't just leave you!"

"You can and you will! I don't want you to see this! Now I'll see you in a few minutes!" He watched to make sure she climbed through the window before turning back to the monster. "Okay, Mr. Worm, prepare to meet your maker… Who ever the fuck that twisted bastard is…"


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

"I really hate you," Ray said as Bobby pushed him through the filthy hallway.

"Feeling's mutual," Bobby replied while trying all the doorknobs.

Finally they came to the last door. "Cross your fingers," Hank said, took a deep breath, then gave the door a push.

Amara quickly shut her eyes and buried her face into Bobby's shoulder. The floor of the entire room was covered in blood, but that was nowhere near as disturbing as what was above it. Mutilated corpses that looked as if they had been there to rot for decades were hanging from hooks on the ends of thick chains from the ceiling. Amara would have vomited if there were anything left in her stomach.

Hank swallowed the bile that had risen to the back of his throat. "Well," he said," that explains the drippy ceiling."

"Yeah, just a little," Bobby said, then vomited onto the bloody floor.

Suddenly, all the corpses' heads snapped around to face them.

*******

Amera hopped off of the fire escape ladder behind Lance, and both Kurt and Pietro immediately hugged her. She pushed both boys away. "What is the matter with you two?"

"Sorry, don't know what came over me," Pietro said.

Amera rolled her eyes at the obviously jealous Pietro and turned away. She started down the alleyway only to be met with a wooden fence. "Great, we're fenced in on this side!" she called back to the others.

"What kind of genius would fence in a fire escape?" Pietro asked, throwing his hands into the air.

"Where's Khadrim?" Kitty asked as Amera rejoined the group.

Amera looked down at the ground. "He, uh, has this thing with heights. He'll be here in a bit, he's just taking his time," she lied.

"Hey, maybe someone should use their powers and go to the other side to see if it's safe to teleport or phase through or something?" Toad suggested.

"I'll do it," Kitty offered, then disappeared through the fog the same way Amera did. She was back in a matter of seconds. "Uh, we don't want to go that way," she stated.

"Why not?" Toad asked. "What's over there?"

"I said we don't want to go that way!" Kitty said angrily, then switched on her communicator. Static met their ears. "How's that for an answer?"

*******

The door slammed closed behind them, trapping them inside this chamber of horror. The corpses around the room all slowly opened their mouths, pouring endless rivers of blood and vomit onto the already blood-soaked floor.

Hank, Amara, Bobby and Ray stood rooted to the spot, fearful of what would happen to them next. Hank's hand that held the flashlight was shaking very badly. Amara fainted into Bobby's arms. Bobby fought the urge to faint himself. He stood Amara upright again as a horrible sound echoed through the room. Scrape. Scrape. Scrape.

Hank aimed the flashlight in the direction the noise came from. The beam landed on a creature, almost man-like, wearing a Leatherface-type, blood covered smock, but its head was shaped like a traffic cone that had been run over several times. It walked towards them very, very slowly. With every step came the same noise: Scrape. Scrape. Scrape.

It was getting closer, and the fire escape door lay behind it. Scrape. Scrape. Scrape. Then Hank saw what was making the noise; a large, rusty blade was being dragged along the ground behind the monster. Scrape. Scrape. Scrape.

"We are so fucking dead," Ray said.

*******

"So, maybe someone could try this way?" Toad asked again, hoping over to the other end of the alley, where there stood another wooden fence, this side with a locked gate. "Amera could go, or Kitty again."

"I'm not going again, you didn't see that thing!" Kitty said with a shudder.

"I can't go," Amera said. Everyone stared at her. "What? I mean it, it's a matter of dehydration and we don't have enough water to go re-hydrating me every time I use my powers, do we."

Everyone's gaze shifted over to Kurt. "Who, me?" Kurt asked, pointing at himself. "No vay, nuh-uh."

Pietro muttered something under his breath, but Kurt, having extremely sensitive ears, heard every word as if it were spoken into a megaphone. "Vhy, you…" he said, then lunged towards him and tackled him to the ground.

"Kurt!" Amera yelled at him. "Kurt, stop it!"

Both boys were swinging their fists wildly until someone suddenly wrenched them apart. Both now sported bloody noses and a black eye apiece. The smell of the person who had pulled them apart suddenly crept its way inside their broken noses. Pietro plugged his nose and Kurt threw up a little in the back of his throat.

Khadrim reeked of vomit, and he was covered in some sort of slimy goo. "Quit fighting each other. Save your energy to do something useful." He let go of the back of their shirts.

"Wha habben da you?" Pietro asked; with his nose plugged, he sounded like Steve Urkel.

"Oh, it just ate me, that's all," Khadrim answered nonchalantly. "Now excuse me while I open this gate." He stalked away to the locked gate.

Amera glared at the two boys who had been fighting.

"Amera, I didn't-" Kurt started.

"What the fuck?" Amera shouted.

"He just attacked out of nowhere!" Pietro exclaimed.

"You lying piece of shit!" Kurt yelled, still extremely angry and ready to attack again. "You said, and I quote, 'Honestly, I don't know vhat Amera sees in you.'" Kurt growled at him. "You called me a pussy!"

Amera's glare turned to Pietro. "Oh really."

Pietro looked around nervously. "I, uh… I didn't mean…" He looked at Kurt. "You heard that?"

"Yeah, dumbass," Kurt said.

"Shut up, Kurt, I'm still angry at you too." Amera said. She stared at them both in silence a moment. Then she walked up to Pietro and slapped him across the face. "Leave us alone. As I recall, you were the one who broke up with me."

"Got it!" Khadrim called from beyond the fog. The creaking of the gate as it opened echoed down the entire alley.

"Let's go," Amera said, taking Kurt's hand and walking away. Pietro sulked behind the two of them as they headed down the alley. Unfortunately, when they reached the gate, the others were nowhere to be seen. "Oh shit, not again…"

*******

The woods chirped with the sounds of wildlife as the three teenagers prepared for their departure. Ron Weasley had returned after weeks of being away, upon which Hermione Granger had beaten him senseless and was now not speaking to him. Gathered beneath Harry Potter's invisibility cloak, they took the enchantments they had placed on the campsite off, then readied for Disapparation. Their destination was Ottery St. Catchpole, where they could meet and discuss some important matters with Xenophilius Lovegood. "All set," Hermione said as the tent magically made its way into her tiny handbag.

Hermione gripped Harry and Ron's arms and together they spun on the spot. Disapparation came with the feeling of being shoved through a small plastic straw in complete darkness. Before Harry could open his eyes, he heard a gasp from Hermione. He opened his eyes and saw why; the familiar sight of the Burrow should have greeted him, not this desolate, foggy, dingy city street. Harry pulled off the invisibility cloak and took one tentative step forward.

"This is not Ottery St. Catchpole," Ron said, barely above a horrified whisper. "We made a mistake, let's try again."

They held onto each other once more and spun around again. Instead of Disapparating, they merely stumbled into each other. "What?" cried Hermione shrilly. "Why isn't it working?"

"If we can't Disapparate," Ron said, sounding horrified, "then what if we can't use magic either?" At this, they each scrambled for their wands and tried some different spells. "Lumos," Ron said, and breathed a sigh of relief when the tip lit up.

Harry looked glumly at the rock he was now levitating with "Wingardium Leviosa," while Hermione watched a butterfly that had formerly been a rock float away. "This doesn't get us any closer to getting out of here," Hermione grumbled.

"So… now what?" Ron asked, kicking garbage that was strewn about the street. "Do we stay put or try to get out of here?"

"I…" Harry started, then stopped, not knowing anything anymore. Suddenly Hermione screamed.

Ron was at her side in an instant. The boys followed her gaze to see a staggering figure coming through the fog. A strange guttural noise reached their ears, chilling them to the bone. They held their wands at the ready.

The figure drew closer every second. It was grotesque; covered in blood and stitched, it held its arms out in typical zombie fashion toward the three. Upon seeing it, Hermione buried her face in Ron's shoulder, white-knuckling his jacket and completely forgetting she was angry at him. Ron pulled her fingers off and pushed her behind himself, holding her hand tightly at his side.

Harry had no idea what to do. He couldn't think, then suddenly a word poured out of his mouth before his mind had wrapped itself around it. "SECTUMSEMPRA!" he cried.

The creature's stitches ripped open and blood began to flow freely from the gashes, more similar wounds sprouted out of nowhere and contributed to the large puddle of blood now on the pavement.

Harry panted, his heart beating wildly as the creature stumbled then fell to the ground and moved no more. Ron threw his arms around Hermione, whose eyes were round as saucers. "What the bloody hell was that?" Ron asked to no one in particular.

"Well, it sure wasn't an Inferi," Harry groaned.

"We can't stay out here in the open, we have to hide," Hermione said, pulling herself away from Ron, but her hand stayed clenched tightly on his jacket sleeve.

"And where do you propose we do that?" Harry asked. His eyes traveled along the old buildings that were partially obscured by the fog.

"We hope Alohomora works if there are locked doors, and pray that there are no more of those… things inside," Hermione offered.

They made their way to the first building and tried the door and found it was locked. "If there are, we hope Sectumsempra works on them all," Harry said. "Alohomora," he said with his wand pointed at the door. The door didn't budge when they tried the knob. "Well, we've got to try to find one that's open, Alohomora doesn't work."

After half an hour of searching, they finally found an open house, then cautiously walked into the entrance, each holding their wands tightly. It looked as if the home had belonged to an old woman; every flat surface in the place had a crocheted doily atop it. Harry's lit wand danced across the floor, lighting a rat or two before finding a set of stairs across the room. "Should we?" he asked the others.

"Yeah, let's go barricade ourselves in there," Ron said, closing the front door and locking it. "Then we can figure out what to do."

They started across the floor slowly, each step making a loud creaking noise on the dusty, old, wooden floor. Their wands darted all over the room, just in case something jumped out at them. Then the floorboards began to make cracking noises and bend beneath them. "Run!" Harry said loudly, grabbing Ron's hand as Ron grabbed Hermione's. They were almost to the stairs when a large section of the floor gave away, making a large hole. Right beneath Hermione.

Ron let go of Harry's arm and grabbed Hermione's with both hands. He was struggling, she was slipping, and Harry ducked onto the floor with him to help. "Give me your other hand!" he cried. She reached up, but his hands were sweaty and couldn't hold onto her. "Hermione!"

She clawed for them both, but was still slipping, both were trying as hard as they could but couldn't hold on. Finally, after a long struggle, her hand left Ron's grasp. "HERMIONE!" Ron yelled as she screamed.

Both boys stared in horror as she disappeared down what seemed to be an old brick well. It was so deep they couldn't see more than a few feet down. Hermione's screams faded away until they couldn't hear her any longer. Ron made a strangled noise, then sat back with his knees up, burying his face in his folded arms.

"Ron…" Harry choked. "Ron, we've… we've got to get upstairs…" After a few hard tugs, Harry finally got him to his feet and they made their way up the staircase.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

They watched Pyramid Head edge closer, frozen in Fear. Amara and Bobby gripped each other, Hank and Ray stared in horror. "Wait, we're mutants, aren't we?" Hank suddenly asked, then turned to Ray. "So shock him already!"

"Oh, no shit, huh!" Ray said, then began to do as suggested.

"Let me at him!" Bobby said, then stepped forward.

"Be my fucking guest," Ray said as Pyramid Head lifted his long blade into the air.

Bobby started to freeze the monster in place, creating a large block of ice around him. "Thank God it worked," Bobby sighed, then leaned up against the wall and wiped his brow.

"But for how long?" Hank asked. "Let's get out of here before we find out."

"Yes please!" Amara said, then proceeded to melt the door and open it. As they had hoped, there was a fire escape through this door. "Let's go!"

********

"We saw this old motel near where we broke down," Lance suggested. "We could head there."

"Okay, that's near the outside of town, right?" Khadrim asked. "Are we all present and accounted for?"

He heard three responses. Three were missing. "Where's Amera?" he demanded.

"Uh, what about Kurt?" Kitty asked.

"And Pietro?" Toad asked.

"Oh, I see," Lance said with a smirk.

"You see what? I don't see three people, that's what I don't see," Khadrim said angrily.

"You're worried about Amera," Lance said slyly.

"I'm worried about the three of them," Khadrim said, but his face was turning red from a mixture of anger and blushing.

"Yeah, I bet you wish you could take Amera to a motel, huh?" Toad asked, getting in on the mockery.

"Shut the hell up and get moving," Khadrim growled.

********

Harry and Ron were looking for signs of life out of the upstairs bedroom window. Neither of them had said anything since Hermione had fallen through the well. Suddenly they saw something moving through the fog. "Hey, look," Harry said quietly and pointed.

It was a small group, four people, and they didn't look at all like monsters. "Let's go down there," Ron said, and the two of them went downstairs and out the front door.

Just off the curb, Ron tripped and fell on his face, bloodying his nose. "Just great, monsters and a busted nose," he mumbled, then dusted himself off and got up. Harry wasn't to be seen. Had he gone on without noticing? "Harry?" Ron asked the dense fog.

Indeed, Harry had not realized Ron had fallen, and reached the group, clutching a stitch in his side and panting a bit. "Hey, you!" he said, and they turned to face him.

"Oh my god, there are still people here?" the only girl in the group asked.

"Not that I've seen, just me and my friend Ron," Harry said, running a hand through his sweaty hair. The weather was quite warmer here than the snowy winter of England, and Harry was still wearing his thick jacket.

"Yeah? And where is your friend?" a boy with white hair asked.

"What?" Harry asked, startled. He looked around and suddenly felt his chest tighten. He'd lost Ron. Ron was out there all alone. "Hey, Ron!" he called out. "Ron? RON!"

********

Hermione groaned in pain as she awoke. She vaguely remembered casting a spell to slow her fall before blacking out upon impact with the ground. She moved stiffly as she sat up, but luckily she didn't feel anything broken. Only a few feet away lay her wand, which she grabbed quickly before standing up. "Lumos," she whispered, and the tip of her wand lit immediately.

The place she had fallen into was windowless, made up of red brick walls and rusted old pipes lining both the walls and ceiling. Most of the pipes had slow leaks, leaving rust stains on the walls and puddles on the floor. She then raised her wand so it pointed straight up, through the tunnel she had fallen through. There was no trace of light on the other end. "Ron? Harry?" she cried, though she doubted very much whether they'd be able to hear her at all, no matter how loud she was.

There was a loud clunk behind her. She darted her wand in both directions that the brick room went, seeing nothing but darkness beyond the room she now stood in. The pipes continued along the walls and through the halls. She stepped into one of the tunnel openings. "Hello?" she said, barely above a whisper.

Another clunk. The sound came from the other tunnel. Her heart sped up and her breathing followed suit. She turned to point her wand down the other tunnel, and the sound was heard again, followed by another sound that chilled her to the bones. Scrape.

She turned back to the tunnel she stood in and started walking down it, hoping the thing wouldn't follow her. Unfortunately, the sound only got louder and more frequent. Scrape. Scrape. Scrape.

It was gaining on her.

She broke into a run, but still the sound was gathering speed. The tunnel seemed to go on forever, and there was no other means of escape. She was trapped in the tunnel indefinitely, with the thing following only yards behind now. She stifled a panicked whimper and squeezed her eyes tightly to clear the tears that were forming, fogging her view. When she opened them again, she had run into another room, similar to the one she had fallen into.

This room was also brick laid and full of pipes, but there was a wrought-iron service ladder on the wall opposite the tunnel opening that led up to a small platform and what looked like a door. She didn't think she would make it all the way across the long room with the thing following her. It was closing in.

Fear boiling inside her, she turned to face the stalker. She shouted the first immobilizing spell she could think of. "Petrificus Totalis!" The sound stopped mid-scrape. Just to be on the safe side, she also placed other spells on it. "Incarcerous! Stupefy!"

She wanted to turn around and run, get away from it as fast as she could, but curiosity got the best of her. Her breathing ragged, she inched forward until her wand light landed on the form of her pursuer. The body of a man, covered in bloodstained clothing, a strange conical head, the long blade that was dragged along behind… She gave an involuntary shudder, then backed away toward the door she'd spotted. "What are you?" she asked no one but herself, then she turned on her heels and ran to the ladder.

********

"What was that?" Amara asked, stopping in her tracks. They were safely away from the old bar where they had left Pyramid Head, although they doubted he'd stay there very long. Amara was sure she'd heard something nearby.

The group stopped to listen in. "Sounds like someone yelling." Ray said. "Which is kind of stupid unless you want to die."

"Maybe they need help," Bobby said, getting right into hero-mode. "Maybe it's the others!"

"Let's find out," Hank said, and they started toward the yelling.

The almost literally stumbled into a teenage boy, around seventeen or so, with freckles and really red hair, sitting on the sidewalk looking forlorn. He was staring, very unwisely, at the pavement. "Are you alright?" Hank asked.

"No, I am not bloody alright!" the boy said with an obvious British accent. He looked up at them, and then scrambled back a few feet at the sight of Hank, clutching a stick in front of him like it would protect him. "Bloody hell!"

"Whoawhoawhoa, take it easy, we're here to help you," Bobby said, stepping forward.

"What the bloody hell is that?"

"I happen to be a teacher," Hank replied, quite annoyed at being addressed as an object. True he was blue and hairy, perhaps he should have thought about that before going to help the kid and just let the teens take care of it. "I happen to be a mutant. My name is Hank McCoy." He held out his hand to shake the boy's and help him off the ground.

The boy stared at the large furry hand for a moment, before taking it and hauling himself up. "I'm Ron Weasley." Hank introduced the other three. "Um, I don't want to sound rude or anything, but what's a mutant?"

"You're joking, right?" Ray asked rudely. "Maybe we should ask why you thought a stick would protect you against a big blue gorilla."

He looked at Hank. "No offense."

"Right," Ron said, mulling things over in his head. "Sounds fair enough. You tell me about mutants, and I tell you about being a wizard."

"Huh?" Amara said, raising an eyebrow, much the same as the boys did.

********

A similar conversation about magic and mutants had already taken place between Harry and his new comrades, and he'd also told them the story about losing Hermione in the well. They, in return, had tried their best to describe their powers to him so they could work together in survival and also the stories about losing their friends.

"So how long do we plan on staying here?" Harry asked. "Here" was the old motel the group had been heading for before meeting him.

"As long as possible," Toad said grimly, spread out on one of the queen-sized bed, which he had all to himself.

Harry sat in a chair next to a very small desk, which held a lamp, right across from the other bed in the room. Kitty and Lance sat on the bed, while Khadrim was stretched out on the counter in the back of the room outside of the bathroom, which held the sink and the old toiletries. There was another door next to the counter, which led behind the motel like a back door. "So how do you plan on finding the others if we stay here?"

"Uh, we don't," Toad said, stretching and passing very loud gas. Everyone instinctively covered their noses, even Harry, who by now had noticed the reek of Toad.

"I don't think we should just leave them out there," Khadrim said with a glare at Toad. "This was always supposed to be a temporary shelter, guys."

"Yeah, well, you just want to find Amera," Toad said, glaring right back.

Khadrim jumped off the counter in a flash and took three strides across the room. In a swift movement, he had Toad pinned against the wall with his left hand, his right arm changing. "Don't you ever-"

Kitty shakily put her hand on Khadrim's elbow. "We know you're worried about everyone," she said softly. "And I want to find them too."

"Wait a minute-" Lance protested.

"I'm going to go find them if that means leaving you, Lance!" Kitty said sourly as Khadrim let go of Toad. "You go right ahead and stay here with Toad!"

"I'm not letting you out of my sight!"

"Then I guess you're coming with us!"

"I-" Lance started to retaliate, then sighed in defeat. "Yeah."

"But we've only been here for half an hour!" Toad complained.

"No one said you had to come with us," Harry pointed out.

"Oh yeah, like I'm going to stay here by myself," Toad said with a roll of his eyes. "I'm not an idiot."

"I beg to differ," Kitty said, sticking out her tongue at him.

"Hey-" Toad started, but then jumped.

Something just pounded on the front door, and the group fell silent. They all started backing toward the rear entrance.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five**

Hermione had run a full ten minutes before slowing down to breathe. She was now several blocks away from the old sewer service tunnel where she had lost Pyramid Head and felt safe enough to take a rest. She was in a narrow alley between two buildings, which was split down the middle by a wooden fence. She leaned up against the brick wall to her right and closed her eyes, breathing deeply.

There was movement on the other side of the fence and her eyes snapped open. She forced her breathing to slow so she'd be quiet, but her heart was thumping wildly. There were whispers on the other side. "I hear something," an accented voice said. Hermione's eyes widened at the revelation that someone over there had such good hearing, since she had been practically silent, and the fear of being found by the wrong type of people.

There was a strange poof type of noise, and she saw a bit of purple smoke rise a few feet down the fence. Only a second later the sound repeated, and a cloud of the purple smoke appeared out of thin air in front of her. A figure stepped out of the smoke, a demon with yellow eyes and covered in blue hair.

Hermione screamed, then pointed her wand at it. "Stupefy!" she cried, and the demon dropped like a sack of bricks.

"Kurt?" a female voice said from the other side of the fence.

As Hermione looked at the creature, she noticed it looked young, like a teenager around her own age and very human like. He was also wearing Muggle clothing. When she looked up, she saw two people rushing over from the end of the fence. She blinked, then one of them was already right in front of her. "Whatdidyoudotohim?" the fast one asked quickly and very rudely.

They were joined by the girl in a few more moments. She had blue hair, which was odd, as it looked completely natural. The boy had white hair, which also looked like his real color. Hermione suddenly felt very overwhelmed with confusion and forgot she was still holding her wand in plain sight. The blue-haired girl was glancing between the demon and the wand. The girl kneeled beside the demon and shook him lightly, though it did not rouse him.

"Whatdidyoudotohim?" the rude one asked again.

"I-I-I'm sorry," Hermione stammered. "He startled me!"

"He'll be fine, Pietro," the girl said, standing up and dusting her hands on her pants. "He's just going to be out for a minute or so." She held out her hand to Hermione. "I'm Amera. We sent Kurt over here because we thought you might have been our friends."

"I'm sorry I knocked him out," Hermione said sheepishly. "I'm Hermione." She looked down at the unconscious boy, still wondering about his curious appearance. "Um, I don't mean to be rude, but… what is he?"

"Pfft, don't mean to be rude…" Pietro said quietly. He received a glare from Amera.

"We're mutants," Amera said with a small smile. "All three of us. Kurt's mutation just makes him look a little different."

"What's a mutant?"

"You've never heard of mutants?" Amera asked.

"You live under a rock?" Pietro asked, getting another glare and an added smack to the arm.

"Well, we're… we're like humans with a little twist to our DNA. Some of us look different, like Kurt, and, well, me and Pietro look a little different too since we have different colored hair and stuff-"

"Rambling." Pietro pointed out.

"Anyway, we just end up with different… abilities." Amera said. "Pietro's fast, Kurt teleports, and I can do… a lot of stuff with water." She smiled at Hermione again, making her look like a fanatic meeting her favorite movie star. "So, is that a real wand? You're a witch, right?"

Hermione dropped her wand with the shock of hearing a Muggle speak of magic. "Uh, yes, how did you-"

"My cousin. She's a student at the Salem Witch's school in Massachusetts," Amera said matter-of-factly.

Kurt gave a moan from the ground, then slowly brought himself into a seated position. "The voman that raised me vas a vitch too," he said groggily. "Thank you oh so much for Stupefying me, that vas awesome," he added sarcastically.

"Am I the only one here who has no idea what's going on?" Pietro said in a slightly raised voice.

"Dude, shut up!" Amera growled at him. "You want a monster-"

There was a loud roar from the street, which they could not see through the fog but was too close for comfort. "Let's move," Kurt said, getting up and the four of them ran away from the sounds.

********

"You know, I don't get why you wanted to come here," Ray complained. They had finally reached the hospital and were walking through the halls with every light available pointing around them, Ron's wand included. "That key you've got has done absolutely shit for us, the doors weren't even locked, not that the key even goes to the damn doors in the first place, probably goes to her fucking locker or something."

"Your mouth is really getting on my nerves," Hank said from his place in the front of the pack.

"Yeah? Well this whole place is getting on mine," Ray retorted.

"Bloody hell," Ron said to himself as he looked around the disgusting hallways. The walls were covered in crusted old blood, and the floors were no different. Here and there were splotches of fresh blood, which made the group cringe. The feeling of death crushed in upon them, making them all on edge.

"Seriously, what was the point?" Ray asked.

"I'm beginning to wonder that myself," Hank said grimly. "Maybe I thought that a hospital would be the safest place."

"Oh yeah, real effing safe," Ray said, rolling his eyes.

"Thank you for not cursing," Hank replied.

"You're effing welcome."

SNAP!

"What was that?" Amara asked, grasping for Bobby's hand.

A mechanical whirring met their ears from a distance. "Sounds like… an elevator?" Bobby suggested.

"Let's go find out," Hank said, leading the way.

********

The foyer of the old apartment building had once been very fancy, with gold trimmings and old fashioned furniture on top of the marble floor tiles and embossed wallpaper. It was all covered in a thick layer of dust, but that didn't stop the teens from flopping into the furniture, thankful for a place to rest for a while.

Within moments of landing in the chairs, they had fallen asleep out of exhaustion. Amera woke first and looked at her watch; two hours had passed and dusk was nearing. She sighed; she'd let the others rest a few more minutes before they had to go find a safe room to spend the night. She was surprised something hadn't killed them as they'd slept.

She quietly got up and stretched, then walked around the large room. There weren't any windows that weren't covered in thick dirt like everything else, so the room was very dim. Her flashlight leading the way, she went toward the old front desk, behind which lay a dark hallway. She flashed the light down it and stepped back when she saw something move in the beam of light. She blinked and it was gone.

Her heart was hammering in her chest. She had no idea what it had been, she'd seen it so briefly, but it looked like something running across the hall. "Is someone there?" she whispered into the dark.

A child's giggle echoed down the hallway. "Hey!" Amera said, making her way around the counter. She stood in the doorway to the hall, darting her light around in search of the child. Suddenly it appeared at the end of the hall, though it hadn't been there the second before. It was too far away to see clearly whether it was a boy or girl or what type of clothing it wore as a clue to gender. "Kid, come back here!" Amera called out to it.

Another giggle reached her ears. "You're going to die," the child said, then ran away through another door.

Amera started to go into the hallway when something touched her shoulder. She jumped around with a start, almost smacking Kurt with the flashlight. "Kurt, don't do that!"

"Vhat are you doing?" he asked. He looked at her with a worried face, then glanced down the darkened hallway.

"There was a kid in there," Amera explained. "Didn't you hear them?" she asked, knowing that he had to have heard the child with his extremely sensitive ears if he was so close to her beforehand.

"Um, no, Amera, I heard you yelling through the hallvay, but I did not hear any kid," he said, his eyebrows drawn together. "Vere you sleepvalking?"

"No, I was not sleepwalking!" Amera said desperately. "There was a kid down there, they went into one of those rooms!"

"There vasn't any kid," Kurt said, pulling on her arm. "Come on, let's get back to the others."

"But… There was…" Amera said, thoroughly confused. "Okay, let's get back," she sighed, giving in.

They rejoined the other two, who were also waking up as they returned. "Having a little bit of 'Oh-My-God-We're-Going-To-Die' sex?" Pietro asked. Hermione's face turned red and Kurt's hands balled into fists. Amera walked forward and punched his already busted nose. "Ow, fuck!"

"Don't be such a pig," she growled, then turned to pick up her backpack. "Come on, we've got to get somewhere safer than this to spend the night," she said, hitching her bag over her shoulder.

There were two staircases in the foyer, one on each side of the front desk, facing the grand entrance. They made their way to the one on the left and Amera had just placed her foot on the bottom stair and looked up when she saw the kid at the top of the staircase again. "Kurt!" she said, pointing up at the kid.

He looked after her finger. "Vhat am I supposed to be seeing?"

Amera put her foot back on the ground and looked at him, appalled. "You really can't see the kid?"

"What kid?" Pietro asked, looking just as clueless as Kurt did.

"What do they want?" Hermione said, looking at the child with round eyes.

"You can see them!" Amera said with a breath of relief. She then turned to look back at the child. "Come on down kid, we'll help you!"

The child giggled.

"Come on," Amera said to Hermione, and Hermione pushed her way past Pietro onto the staircase and the two girls started up the stairs. The boys exchanged worried glances.

They reached the child and saw that it was a little girl, no older than five years old. She was dressed in a tiny lacy dress and had perfect blonde curls. She was spotlessly clean, unlike everything else in the building, including the four teenagers. She almost looked like she was glowing, so much was the contrast between filth and cleanliness. She was glowering at them hatefully, which took the two teen girls aback. "We want to help you," Hermione said to the little girl.

"You can't help me," she answered wickedly. She turned to look at Amera. "I told you, you're going to die."

Hermione looked at Amera. "What do we do?"

"Die," the child answered.

The building gave a great lurch, sending the girls backward down the staircase. Kurt and Pietro ran up the stairs to stop their fall, ignoring the shaking of the building. Kurt caught Amera halfway down, while Pietro, being much faster, caught Hermione after only a few stairs. When the girls looked up again, the little girl was gone. Kurt slowly helped Amera to her feet while Pietro was helping Hermione back down the stairs. "Ve have to get out of here," Kurt said, and they went as fast as the two injured girls could move toward the front door.

When they were halfway across the foyer, the walls and ceiling began to crack loudly. They stopped in their tracks as a large chunk of the roof fell in, blocking the door. Pieces of wall and roof fell all around them and the floors began to crack. Blood began to seep its way through the cracks of the wall and floor, trailing into pools all around the once grand foyer.

"There's no way out!" Hermione cried. They huddled together, looking in fear as the imminent danger of death fell all around them.

"The hallway!" Amera said, suddenly remembering where she had first seen the little girl. "There has to be a back way, right?"

"Anything is better than standing here waiting to get pummeled by the roof," Pietro said, then started to run toward the hallway.

"Wait up!" Amera said as they started to make their way across the room after him. He'd be gone before they'd get there, of course. As they ran through the hall, the falling debris reduced to pebbles, but not for long; any second the second floor would give away. The pool of blood was rising on the floor, however; it was now covering the toes of their shoes across the entire floor.

They darted their lights into each of the rooms they passed, seeing if any held another door, but none of them did. They went through the door at the end of the hall, which opened into the large stainless steel kitchen. The bottom of the door slowed the flow of blood, but it was creeping steadily under. The room had seen terror at some point in its past, like every other building in this town. The stainless steel surfaces all had smudges of what was clearly recognized as dried blood or other body fluids. The floor had fresh blood in streak along the middle, leading toward the back entrance, which had obviously been made by Pietro's quick getaway.

"Let's follow his tracks," Amera said, and they rushed as fast as they could while avoiding slipping.

They pushed open the back door and the girls heard a screech from deep inside the building. "You were supposed to die!" the little girl screamed at them. They did not slow down until they were blocks away and heard the final crumbling sounds of the building fade away.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six**

Lance pushed the door open slowly, praying to whatever god he might believe in that it wouldn't squeak, then he glanced in both directions along the back alley behind the old motel. Nothing was there except for the usual fog, so he motioned for them to come out. They slowly and silently started along the longer way, going behind five other rooms rather than two in the other direction. They'd made it by two of them when they heard a sickening scrape behind them that gave them goose bumps.

They all kept moving, Harry and Khadrim looking back over their shoulders to see what was following them. At the end of the building was the creature Khadrim had seen much earlier that day, right after they had been separated from Mr. McCoy. It was not one he looked forward to seeing again. However, he knew he'd have to be the one to stop it. "Keep walking and don't look back," he told the others as he stopped and faced Pyramid Head.

"Wait, what are you doing!" Kitty cried out, turning around.

"RUN AND DON'T LOOK BACK!" Khadrim shouted over his shoulder.

"You're not going to risk your life for us again!" she yelled back, then she saw Pyramid Head. And screamed.

"Kitty?" Lance said loudly, stopping and turning around as well.

"Let's go!" Harry yelled, grabbing Kitty's arm and running, grabbing Lance's elbow along the way. The next second, Khadrim lunged at Pyramid Head.

********

Hank approached the elevator cautiously, the teens huddled close behind him. They could hear the ominous creaking and clunking of the old elevator making its way down the shaft slowly. After what seemed like hours, the groaning of the motor halted and the doors opened with a loud, slow grinding noise. The elevator was just as filthy as the hallway they currently stood in, though there might have been things other than blood along its walls.

"Should we?" Hank asked.

"Hmm, let's think about this for a second," Ray said, rubbing his chin mockingly. Bobby shoved him through the doors, then climbed in himself. "Well, I guess King Sh- I mean, Bobby, had decided for us, isn't that nice?"

The door closed right behind Amara, as she was the last one to board. She pressed her way to the back, where Bobby stood next to Ron. "I don't think this is very smart," she whispered.

"Well, it's too bloody late now," Ron replied, staring at the unmoving dial above the door as they climbed.

After several long minutes, the elevator lurched to a stop and the doors whined their way open to reveal a hallway that was just as gory as the one they'd left. "What a nice change of scenery," Ray grumbled.

"Okay, let's move slowly, keep an eye out," Hank said softly.

They did so, one by one. The last one to move toward the door was Ron, and the door slammed shut so fast it would have taken his hand off if it had been in the way. "Hey!" he yelled.

"Ron!" He could hear the others calling from the other side of the thick doors. They were pounding on the door, trying to free him. "What's happening! Alohomora!" He waved his wand at the door, though he doubted it would do anything since there wasn't a lock in sight. The door began to glow; Amara must have been on the other side, using her powers to attempt melting them away. Then the elevator gave a great shudder.

A second later it was plummeting through the long shaft toward the ground.

********

"I am going to kill him," Amera growled from her place on the hard wooden floor. They had found another apartment building, though this one was gloriously free of monsters and dripping walls. "He could have waited for us out there."

"Maybe he's already dead," Kurt said, slightly marveling at the idea. (Heh heh, MARVEL-ing… I slay me.^_^)

"It's dark out there," Hermione said, lying on the floor, flat on her back, looking at the darkened window. She had placed some enchantments on the building, making it relatively safe for them; she was pretty sure that nothing other than another person could enter. She was positive the enchantments worked on at least the apartment they were in.

"You guys really saw a little girl?" Kurt asked as he got a canteen out of his pack and took a long drink. "Ve're almost out of vater," he added.

Hermione reached out and took the canteen from him, pointed her wand at it, and said "Aguamenti." Water flowed from her wand and filled the canteen to the brim, then she handed it back to him. "Yes, we saw the little girl."

"Why could we see her and the boys couldn't?" Amera asked as she took the canteen and drank. "Oh, that's good. Don't have to worry about dehydrating now."

Hermione looked thoughtful. "My theory is that the little girl was dead."

"That's a given," Kurt said, lying down on his bag like a pillow.

"Yes, well, I believe that she was looking for her mother when she died. And she was dressed so nicely because she came from a wealthy family, to have been living in that kind of flat." Hermione drew her knees up and wrapped her arms around them, leaning her chin on her kneecaps. "She was hoping that one of us would be her new mother."

"We're not much more than kids ourselves," Amera said, a strange mixture of sadness and disgust etched on her face.

"She could have been from an era where girls were married at thirteen and had a few children by our age. She was wearing very old fashioned clothing." She sighed and closed her eyes. "I hope the others are all okay."

"Me too," Amera said.

********

Ron tried to think as fast as he could while falling down the elevator shaft and grasping onto the railing. "What would Hermione do?" he kept asking himself. He hoped that a shield charm would do something, because he could not remember anything else that would do much good in this type of situation. "Protego!" he shouted, brandishing his wand and praying that it would safe his ass.

Only a second after the spell was cast, the elevator exploded into bits as it collided with the ground.

Dust filled the air Ron breathed and he struggled underneath the rubble. He had survived, though he was sure his left arm was broken and his ankle sprained, not to mention all the cuts and bruises from flying debris. He was lying on the cement on his stomach; he pushed forward with his good arm to attempt lifting any wreckage off of himself. Luckily it moved easily and he rolled himself out of the crack he had created.

He squinted through the dust that was still settling to see if there was any way of climbing out. To his great surprise, there was a metal door set into a wall on the same level as he, presumably for service workers. He remembered a spell for quick bandaging, though he had never been very good at it, and cast it on his sprain and broken wrist. He struggled to his feet, aching all over, then made his way shakily to the door.

********

Khadrim charged the creature once again, this time running him through with his sword arm. Pyramid Head had raised his own blade, swinging it down as Khadrim had neared. Khadrim cried out in pain and stepped back a few long paces, pulling the sword out of Pyramid Head's torso with a sickening squelching sound.

Pyramid Head dropped to the ground, though Khadrim knew it wouldn't be forever. He looked down at his own wound. His left thigh had been hit badly, it was bleeding profusely and he had no way of bandaging it properly. It needed much more than stitches. He had chanced enough time there, however; he needed to get away before the thing got back up.

He limped painfully for what seemed like a very long time. It was getting dark, and he wanted to be in a shelter before it was fully dark.

Passing by an old hospital, he heard the creaking sound of a door. He looked at the hospital, but had no desire to go inside. He figured that a hospital would have been the place people had gone to when this place had gone to ruin, and therefore would be the place most riddled with bodies. Or animated corpses. There to the side of the building was someone limping out of a doorway. Good Samaritan that he is, he made his way carefully and painfully toward them.

The person he met was covered in scratches and was poorly bandaged. He was also clutching a wand. "Ron?" he asked.

"Yes?" he asked, looking bewildered at the stranger that knew his name.

"My name is Khadrim," he said. "I figured you had to be Ron, according to Harry's description and the fact you're holding a wand."

"Harry?" Ron said, looking stunned. "You've seen Harry?"

"Yeah," Khadrim said, then looked at Ron's bandages once more. "Your bandages kind of suck."

"You should talk, you don't even have any on," Ron retorted, then pointed his wand at Khadrim's leg. Bandages wrapped around Khadrim slightly better than the ones on himself. "Always works better on others," he groaned.

"Thanks," Khadrim said, shifting his pack on his shoulder. "So, shall we team up?"

"Yes please," Ron said. "I've been alone in the fog once, I don't plan on repeating the experience."

"I hear you," Khadrim agreed.

They started along down the road, each with their lights on in the growing darkness. "Are you with that Hank McCoy's group?" Ron asked.

"Yeah, you've been with him?" Khadrim asked.

"For a little while," Ron answered. "We went into that hospital, then I got stuck in an elevator and then it crashed after who knows how many stories falling, but I had cast a Shield Charm, so it kind of protected me. They probably think the fall killed me. They're probably out of there by now. Scariest place ever." Ron elaborated with a shudder.

"I sure hope they're out of there." Khadrim stated. "What were they thinking, going into a giant morgue like that?"

"I know, right?" Ron replied.

Khadrim sighed, something he very rarely did. "There's two other groups out there other than Mr. McCoy's." He glanced at the ground. "I hope Amera's okay."

Ron glanced at him with a goofy grin. "Sounds like you're as lovesick as I am." He sighed and looked at the ground, as Khadrim grew more alert, watching for danger. "But Hermione fell into a big hole right after we got here. She might be dead."

"Sorry," Khadrim said lamely as they limped along. "We should get into shelter, we shouldn't be out here in the dark."

"Right," Ron said, then shined his light to his left. A strip mall, containing a convenience store, stood like a bright beacon of safety. "Hey, food too!"

"If anything in there is still good," Khadrim said, then limped over to the door. He pushed the glass door open slowly, hoping there wasn't a bell attached to it to signal the old clerks. All was silent as the door was opened fully. "Don't eat the stuff in the coolers," he warned, knowing that they could probably eat whatever they came in contact with, they were so hungry. "That stuff will definitely be bad."

"Like everything else in here won't be stale, mate."


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven**

"Now what?" Toad asked after a long walk away from the motel.

Harry groaned. Yet again, he was the leader, like always. "We'll stop at the next house that's open, okay?"

Kitty shrieked and Harry turned and killed the creature to her left quickly. He sighed. This was getting really old. He'd killed six of them since they left the motel.

"Six," Lance said bitterly. "You know, it's kind of common sense that it will be more dangerous at night, so-"

"You be leader then! I never wanted the damn job!" Harry turned and shouted at him.

"Sorry," Lance said sheepishly.

They walked along in silence until they reached a road full of houses. "Let's try the doors," Harry grumbled.

In a matter of minutes they found one that opened. Before they entered, a voice echoed in the street behind them. The voice of a child. "He won't let you leave," it warned.

They turned and looked for the source of the voice. They could just barely see the shape of a small boy standing in the street. "What do you mean?" Harry called to it. "Who won't let us leave?"

The boy ran away into the fog. Harry began to follow, but Kitty grabbed his elbow. "Don't leave us," she begged. (Whiny fuck, isn't she? Pretty damn useless too.)

He looked into her pleading eyes and sighed. "I won't." He then turned and walked into the house. In seconds he knew he'd already been there. "Great," he groaned. "We're back where we started."

"What do you mean?" Toad asked.

"Remember when I ran up to you in the street?" They nodded. "That was right out there." He pointed out the still open door to the street. "This is the house we lost Hermione in."

"Shit," Lance said. "We should still stay the night here, though. Safer than looking for another place to go, right?"

"Yeah," Harry said, walking further into the room and looking down at the hole in the floor. "Yeah." He cleared his throat. "Let's get upstairs. Watch out for the hole."

********

They stared at the closed elevator doors in shock after the cacophony of sound that had erupted from its depths. Ron was surely dead, nothing could have survived that. Hank blinked to keep some sort of focus, then cleared his throat after they gave a moment of silence. "Well," he said shakily. "Let's go."

The students followed reluctantly down the hallway. They rounded a corner and Amara almost screamed at the sight that greeted them, but Bobby covered her mouth with his hand before she could.

These were definitely the most human looking of the creatures they'd encountered so far; the female figures, over a dozen at least, were clad in white dresses, presumably nurses' attire, but like everything else in Silent Hill, they were covered in blood and other gore. They stumbled along the hall like every zombie seen in horror films, arms stretched out in front of them, grasping for anything to feed upon. Their eyes were nothing but empty sockets.

"They can't see us," Hank mouthed to the rest of them. Unfortunately, the nurses stood between them and the rest of the hall; it was either continue that way or turn back to the empty elevator chute and hope there was a ladder inside.

"I vote elevator," Ray mouthed back, eyes wide and raising his hand like he was in a senate meeting.

"Just get to clearing them out," Hank replied silently. Bobby immediately got to work, freezing the nurses one by one as silently as he could, which meant slowly.

Ray stepped back a few feet, readying himself for a mass attack, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. Then a sudden pain made his eyes shoot open and a gurgling gasp leave his lips. He choked on his rising bile and felt woozy. Something was dripping from his mouth involuntarily. He looked down in terror to see a large blade protruding from his torso, a large wound from the middle of his chest to right above his pelvis. He couldn't feel anything anymore. His eyes drifted shut, and he saw blackness.

Amara turned at his gurgled noise. "Ray?" she asked as quiet as possible. Then she saw Ray, dead and dangling from the end of Pyramid Head's blade, blood trickling out of the corner of his mouth and pouring out of his stomach into a pool on the floor. She couldn't stop the scream from escaping her lips.

********

Hermione had been rumaging through her small handbag for quite sometime. She had explained to Kurt and Amera that she had cast a spell to expand its depths so she could fit a multitude of things inside. "Ah, here it is," she said, then started to pull a rather large canvas item out.

"A tent?" Amera said, raising one eyebrow. "Uh, Hermione, we're in an apartment."

"Yes, but there are no furnishings, are there." she stated rather than asked. She waved her wand and the tent magically pitched itself in the middle of the empty living room. "Go on inside," she said with a surpressed grin.

They entered the tent and were flabbergasted at what they saw; the tent had been small on the outside, but like the handbag, the tent was much larger inside and had separations for different rooms. A bedroom with bunk beds, a furnished sitting room, a fully functional kitchen and bathroom awed the two. "Shower?" Amera asked when her mouth began to work again.

"I told you," Hermione said, now grinning at the look on their faces. "And yes, go take a shower," she told Amera.

Amera skipped off to the bathroom with her backpack in tow, where her nice, clean training uniform was waiting. Kurt and Hermione settled into chairs in the sitting room.

"Those enchantments you cast," Kurt started, "makes us safe? The monsters can't see the candles ve have lit all over?"

"Exactly," Hermione answered. "Anybody that may still be on the street will be able to see the light, though, and then they could find us for protection. But we're completely safe from monsters."

Kurt fell asleep in his chair, having been listening to the soothing sound of the running water. A few minutes later, Amera came out toweling her hair. "Kurt, you taking a shower?" she asked gently.

He stirred, then waved his hand and closed his eyes again. "Ladies first," he mumbled.

The girls exchanged amused glances, then Hermione stood and started toward the bathroom while Amera took the vacant seat. Hermione stopped halfway to the bathroom. "I am so stupid!" she said to herself. "How could I have forgotten?"

"Forgotten what?" Amera asked, freezing in the midst of drying her hair.

"The deluminator! Ron could find us with it!"

"Delu-whatsis?" Amera said, thoroughly confused. "Wait, Ron has something that can find us?"

"Well, if he's still…" Hermione started, but couldn't complete the thought. "Anyway, as long as he can hear it, he can find us."

"Back up and explain this to me," Amera said, dropping the towel over the arm of the chair.

"Ron has a device that can track us if I say his name, which I've said plenty of times now. As long as he hears it, he'll be able to follow a beam of light right to this building!" Hermione began to wring her hands in excitement. "I don't quite understand it completely, but that's how he found me and Harry after he left us, so he should be able to use the same thing to find us now."

Amera was still lost. "I think I'll just trust you on this one. Have a nice shower."

********

"Amara, get him while Bobby and I clear the way through the nurses!" Hank shouted at her, all silent precautions lost with the sound of her screams. He looked at her and saw she was frozen in terror still as Pyramid Head inched ever closer. "Amara!"

She took a deep breath, then concentrated on getting her powers under control. When she opened her eyes, she powered up into her magma form and sent a steady stream of lava at the creature before her. She backed up as far as she could without touching Bobby or Hank.

Bobby froze the nurse monsters, while Hank began to smash them to bits as they made their way toward the door at the end of the hall. Hank forced the door open, then Bobby ducked through it. "Okay Amara, let's go!"

Amara turned on her heels, bolting through the door while simultaneously returning to her normal state. Hank slammed the door shut, and Amara mustered up what strength she had left to weld it. They all fell panting onto the floor of the cold room. She let the tears flow. "He's dead." she said quietly. Then, loudly, she shouted at Hank, "Ray's dead! And Ron's dead! And it's all your fault!"

Bobby reached out to comfort her, but she pulled away. "You wanted to come here! You wanted to come to this fucking hospital!"

Hank looked at the floor, ashamed. She was right of course. "We…" He started, then his voice broke. He cleared his throat, then continued, "We'll stay in this room tonight, then we'll climb out of the window in the morning." He glanced at the window.

"Fine," Amara grumbled, then grabbed her backpack and went to the farthest end of the room from him. She flopped angrily onto one of the dusty old gurneys, her back facing the guys.

********

Ron was in a happy stupor, having stuffed himself with old packages of potato chips and cookies. Khadrim had eaten his fill of canned foods, and was now leaning up against the old front counter.

Khadrim heard something. "Ron, is your pocket talking?"

"Huh?" Ron asked, confused.

"Ron."

"Yep, that's your pocket," Khadrim said, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh, the Deluminator!" Ron said, sitting up and rummaging in his pocket for a moment. He pulled out a small device that looked like a lighter. Once more, it said his name in a girl's voice. "It's Hermione! She's alive!"

"Yeah, let's keep it down, or we won't be," Khadrim said, a half-amused look on his face. "So, what is that thing?"

"This, my friend, will lead us to Hermione, and hopefully some of your friends," Ron said, his smile widening. "Now how about we try and get some rest?"

********

Pietro stopped running when he quite literally ran into a fence. "Jesus Christ!" he yelled, then kicked the fence, only resulting in a sharp pain in his toe and a loud rattling noise. He looked around in fear, praying no monsters would come to the source of the noise. After a moment, he saw a gate about twenty yards away, slightly ajar. "Hot damn!" he said, then ran to it in a second.

He peeked through the gate and saw nothing, so he stepped through into more fog. He saw a sign dangling by one hinge on the gate that read "QUARANTINE." "Holy shit," he said to nobody, then began walking.

The landscape was just as dingy and gore-covered as the one he had just left, which meant that whatever had been quarantined hadn't been kept in very well. He walked through the silent street alone, wishing that he hadn't panicked and ran off, losing the others. The road he walked on was bare on each side, a stretch of empty road. After a few moments, he saw something through the fog. No, a few somethings. They weren't moving. "Great, more dead people," he grumbled.

Suddenly one stirred, and he froze in his tracks. He watched until it was in a fully upright position, still sitting on the ground. It was just a girl!

"Unnnn…" she said, rubbing her head with one hand. "What… where am I?" She sounded young, another teenager. She looked around, and the other two figures were moving as well. "Fred!" she said, recognizing one of the people through the fog. "George!"

"Ginny?" one of the boys asked. "Hey, what's going on?"

Pietro cautiously stepped forward. "Hey, you!" one of the boys shouted. "Did you do this? Did you bring us here?"

"N-no," Pietro stuttered. "I don't know how we ended up here either! I mean, we drove, but our car broke down, and-"

"Okay, you didn't do it," the girl said. She stood up, the boys following suit. "So, let's get out of here."

"Fat chance," Pietro said, restraining the urge to roll his eyes.

"Right little optimist you are," Fred - or George - said sarcastically.

"Anyway, I'm George, this is my brother Fred, and our sister, Ginny," one of the identical twin boys said. They all had bright red hair and British accents. "You are?"

"Pietro."

"Okay, so let's try to get out of here," Ginny said.

"Like I said, fat chance," Pietro replied. "I've been stuck here since early this morning. I lost my group, and one of them died, and-"

"Died?"

"Yeah, Freddie was too slow, and the monsters got him."

"Monsters?"

"What's that?" George asked, squinting to see something coming through the fog.

"Um, I would suggest running right about now," Pietro said, getting ready to run.

"Wait, that's…" Ginny was squinting now too. "Oh my goodness, Dean?"

Another teenager came through the fog, a black boy who looked like he'd been homeless for a while. "Ginny?" he said upon being able to see the others. He ran forward and met up with them. He looked inquisitively at Pietro.

"Pietro. Don't mind me," Pietro said. "I'll be leaving to find a shelter for the night."

"Sounds like a good idea. Have you seen some of those things here?" Dean asked the others.

"No," the siblings answered.

"Yes, and that's exactly why I suggested shelter, now let's move!" Pietro started to walk, and the others reluctantly followed. Then a loud roar echoed through the street. "Up ahead! Let's hide in there!"

* * *

**_Thanks to everyone reading! Even if you aren't reviewing... I'm not bitter! *cough cough* Anyway, I'm really busy lately, so it may be a little while before I get Chapter Eight and on typed up. It's already written, I just have to find the time to type it..._**


	8. Chapter 8

**Hey guys! An update! Finally, right? Yep. It sucks having to use my phone to type on. Don't ask. My life is hectic right now, so there's reasons I'm using my phone to type rather than my computer. ANYWAY... On with chapter eight! Enjoy!**

* * *

**Chapter Eight**

Morning came far too swiftly. Amera rolled over in her bed, not wanting to wake up. She knew that when she opened her eyes, the whole ordeal in Silent Hill will have been a nightmare and she was back in her bedroom at the Xavier Institute. She squinted her eyes so they were barely open to take in her surroundings. Horrified, she opened them fully to be staring at a canvas tent roof.

She grumbled a bit to herself, then flung her feet off of the bunk and jumped to the floor. Kurt made a grunting in his sleep on the bottom bunk, then rolled over to face the wall. Amera stretched as she walked into the tent bathroom, which still amazed her to no end, even when facing imminent doom. She relieved her bladder and washed her face, as per usual morning ritual, then yawned as she walked out of the tent and into the dingy apartment.

"Morning," Hermione said, giving Amera a small smile from her seat by the window. She had bags under her eyes, which meant she hadn't gotten very much sleep.

"Did you sleep at all?" Amera asked.

"A few hours, then I gave the bed to Kurt," Hermione said.

Amera pulled another old rickety chair next to the window to watch, almost impossible through all the fog, for other people. Kurt came out of the tent a few minutes later, scratching his butt with one three-fingered hand. He proceeded to rummage through the cabinets in the kitchen area of the room, looking for anything edible. He found a sealed bag of potato chips that had a printed date of some two years prior. He opened it, sniffed the contents, then tried a chip. "Stale, but better than nothing…" he groaned.

"Oh, my God," Hermione said suddenly, standing from her chair and pointing down at the street below. "There's Ron!"

"Really?" Amera asked, jumping up and following Hermione's gaze. "Hey, Khadrim's with him!"

"But not Harry…" Hermione said. "I hope he's alright…"

********

When he woke in the morning, Hank found Amara sitting next to the grimy window with puffy red eyes. "Hey," he said peacefully. "You get any sleep?"

"Mmm," she said with a slight nod, obviously still angry at him, not that he could blame her.

He began to rummage around in his pack to find their emergency rations they had left. "Here," he said, tossing a small package toward her. She caught it and opened it, turning back to the window as she ate.

Bobby grunted and sat up. "Izzat food?" he asked, barely awake.

Hank tossed him a pouch as well, then looked into his bag again. He knew the others had food pouches in their packs as well, but their water supply was dwindling. "After you finish eating, we're going to go look for some supplies."

"Oh goodie." Amara groaned.

********

Harry awoke with a groan, his body stiff and sore, which he'd grown accustomed to from his months of living in their tent on the run. He had been awakened by a very foul stench, the likes of which he'd never smelled before. He sat up and turned to see Kitty and Lance sleeping on a dusty old mattress across the room. Turning the other way, he found he was face to face with Toad's rear end. He gagged, throwing up a little in his mouth. He dragged himself up off the floor as fast as he could. "Guys, wake up," he said, and the others sat up at varying speeds. "Let's get ready to go."

"Uh-huh," Kitty grumbled as she pulled her shoes on.

Minutes later, they had their bags and were ready to go, opening the door to the room. They entered the hall quietly, not knowing whether something could have gotten in while they slept. As Lance reached the top of the staircase, about to go down, he stopped suddenly and motioned for everyone to stay silent. Nothing was heard for a moment, then they heard a loud scraping sound.

Scrape. Scrape. Scrape.

As they quietly returned to the room, Lance said, "Oh, fuck me."

********

"Thank God you can do that," Ron said in relief and awe as Khadrim's arm reverted from a sword once more. He'd had to slice up three of the monsters since they entered the apartments.

"If you were a little quicker with that wand, I wouldn't have to do that," Khadrim growled back.

"Hey, I stupified the second one!" Ron retorted.

Khadrim glared at him, then sighed and leaned against the wall. "Why couldn't that thing just lead us to your friend?"

Ron shrugged and leaned against the opposite wall in the hall. "I don't know, that's just not the way it works." After a moment's rest, he stood straight again, holding his hand out to Khadrim to help him upright. "Let's find our friends, eh?"

Khadrim gave him a weak grin and took his hand, hauling himself up straight, grimacing as his injured leg took weight again. "Yeah."

They approached the next apartment and found it was not locked. Ron opened the door cautiously and called, "Hello?" Not a single thing moved inside. They went on to the next room. Two more followed, no monsters, no friends.

"Maybe it's broken," Khadrim said with a roll of his eyes. Ron shot him a glance and proceeded to the next door. This one was locked. He knocked, then said as loud as he dared to, "Hello?"

The sound of footsteps running to the door could be heard on the other side, followed by the sound of opening locks. The door was thrown wide and Ron's vision was suddenly filled with bushy brown hair as Hermione threw her arms around him. He wrapped his arms tightly around her waist. "I thought you were dead until I heard you calling."

Khadrim made his way past them and into the room. He looked around hoping to see someone, anyone. Then he saw her, sitting in an old dusty chair on the far side of the room next to the window, just past a tent that was for some reason set up inside. She was clean and wearing her uniform, and he was thanking whatever sort of entity was out there that she was safe. "Amera?"

She gasped and stood up. "Khadrim?" She walked quickly to him and hugged him. "Oh my God!" She looked down at his leg. "Let me clean that!" He hugged her again, then when he looked up again he saw Kurt coming out of the tent. He backed up from Amera as Kurt glared at him like he wanted nothing more than for Pyramid Head to strike him down.

"It's nothing'" Khadrim lied as Amera forced him down into her vacant chair.

"You've bled through the bandages," Amera said giving him a look.

"He said it's nothing," Kurt said with an edge to his voice, still staring at Khadrim.

Amera took the crudely made bandages away tenderly, Khadrim wincing as she removed the last of them. "Well, at least it stopped bleeding." She looked up into his eyes, the same color as his crimson blood. "What did this?"

"Pyramid Head did this," he said with a grimace of pain.

"Pyramid Head?" Hermione said with a start. "You saw it too?"

"Wait, that thing we saw when he hid behind the car?" Amera asked. "The one that was eating that other thing?"

"Yeah," Khadrim replied, staring up at the ceiling as Amera sopped at his wound with a towel.

"What the bloody hell is Pyramid Head?" Ron asked.

"You'll know if you see it. Just pray to God that you don't." Khadrim said.

"You know we should be out there looking for the others," Amera said, wrapping the wound once more with fresh bandages from her bag.

Ron stared at her in horror. "Are you bloody mental? Nothing can get us in here, why would we go?"

"She's right, Ron. We should look for the others and we need to find food," Hermione replied.

His expression showed his inner turmoil; he was torn between staying in their safe haven and going to find food and the others. "Bloody hell," he said after a while. "Let's at least get a shower in."

********

Pietro awoke with a start; Ginny was shaking him urgently to get his attention. He looked at her angrily and was about to yell when she held a finger to her lips. He noticed the scared look in her eyes. Silently, she motioned to the window and mouthed, "Something outside."

Light was shining feebly through the fog, making it difficult as ever to see anything. However, there was definitely a shape, clear as day, coming towards their little building.

Ginny was silently rousing the other three boys as Pietro glanced around the room for a weapon. The building they were in consisted of only the one room, which used to be a security checkpoint for buildings that were long gone. There was a window on two of the walls, opposite one another, and one door on the back wall. There was a desk and a television with a busted screen, which were once used by a security guard. A tall cabinet with double doors stood next to the door in a corner.

Pietro walked over to the cabinet and found it was locked. He motioned to the twins and one walked over. Fred pulled out his wand and waved it at the lock. Pietro wondered vaguely if these wizards knew Hermione. The spell didn't work, so Fred pulled out a lock picking kit from his pocket. In a moment the cabinet was open, revealing a shotgun and a half of a box of ammunition.

Pietro took the gun, but had no idea how to load a shotgun, having only used a handgun before. He prayed it was already loaded as he walked over to the window. He opened the window as quietly as possible, took aim, and fired.

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**Please Review! It's sad, I have so many people getting alerts for it, but only two reviews! Please review if you enjoy it!**


	9. Chapter 9

**After months of waiting, updates have come!**

I was so busy with moving and other stuff (yes, 5 months is a ridiculous time to wait.....) but life was hectic. Thanks for waiting and thanks for new readers!

Now on with the story!

**Chapter Nine**

They were back in the bedroom once more, the door locked behind them. They huddled in the middle of the room, trying to figure out how to escape. "I've got an idea," Kitty whispered. "We go out the window to the ledge of the roof, then we, like, jump into the street."

Harry gave her an incredulous look. "Hello, we'd all break our legs!"

"Not me," Toad boasted. "I'll land on my feet."

"Shut up," Lance said, smacking the back of Toad's head.

"Just trust me, okay?" Kitty said, then walked to the window and opened it as quietly as possible. The boys glanced at each other before following her out onto the roof. "Now hold onto me and don't let go, no matter what." Harry and Toad each held onto an arm, Lance held onto her jeans just above her butt so his fingers were pressed against her soft skin. "On three," Kitty said. "We jump to the middle of the street."

"I still don't-"

"Trust me, Harry!" Kitty shouted at him. "One... Two..."

There was a terrifyingly loud crashing noise as Pyramid Head's blade ripped through the door.

"THREE!"

The group jumped, preferring to be stains on the pavement rather than be at the mercy of Pyramid Head. Harry had his eyes closed tight, certain that his legs were about to break upon impact with the concrete below.

To Harry's amazement, the blow never came. Instead he was shocked as he fell into freezing cold water. He stood quickly, and the instant his face broke the water, an awful stench crept into his nose. He opened his eyes to see they were in a dim tunnel made of brick, stagnant sewage water all around them. There was a walkway on either side of the the water, and the four of them made their way up the short service ladder onto one.

"Sorry," Kitty apologized as they sat on the bricks for a moment. "I didn't know there'd be, like, sewer so close to the surface. I was just gonna pop us in and out of the ground so we could run."

Harry suddenly realized what had happened; Kitty's power of going through solid objects had let them go safely through the ground. "Better to be in the sewer than in little bloody pieces," he said. If they'd stayed in that room and talked for only seconds longer, he realized, they'd all probably be dead. "Come on. Let's find a way out of here.

********

"It just doesn't make sense. That gate was definitely locked when we were here before..." Hank said. It had even been marked off on their map. It was now open, though how it had become so was a mystery. "Amara, please correct the map.

Amara, even though she was still not speaking to Hank, did as she was told. Bobby shuffled along beside her. "Hey, there's a little building over there," he pointed out in the expanse of empty road. "Maybe it's a 7-11 or something," he added hopefully. "What I wouldn't give for a Twinkie, they never go bad..."

"Okay, Twinkie Man, we'll go check it out," Hank said with a small chuckle.

A loud crack rang through the air and Hank fell to his knees, clutching his right shoulder. It took a moment for them to realize what had happened.

"Don't shoot!" Bobby shouted. "We're not monsters!"

Amara leaned down and helped Hank to his feet, holding some gauze from her pack against the wound tightly. "I am so sorry..." he said. "Sorry about everything..."

She looked him in the eye. "I'm sorry for screaming at you," she said back.

They reached the little shack and realized with a start that they recognized the boy holding a shotgun in the window.

"Pietro?"

"Yeah, it's me, and our Jeep broke down, before you ask. Get inside. Now."

********

Khadrim had washed himself about six times in the shower, and now he had dried himself and dressed. He flopped into an old wooden chair in the main room of the apartment. Looking around, he realized that three people were missing.

Amera was the only one in the room, sleeping in another chair and leaning against the window. "Amera?"

She stirred and looked around. Then she noticed he'd taken a shower. "I need to do your bandages," she said.

"Where are the others?" Because I doubt Kurt would willingly leave you alone with me... He thought bitterly.

"Well... They waited until you were in the shower so they could go find food. Kurt was reluctant to leave me, but I made him go; I am the best at bandaging." She nodded at his leg. "And you're too protective to let them go without you. Done."

The bandage was perfect, she'd obviously done well in their first aid lessons. "Thanks."

A few minutes passed in silence before Amera let out a frustrated growl of boredom. "God, there's nothing to do!"

"Except survive."

"Yeah, who knew that surviving would bore you to death?" She sighed and jumped to her feet. She then proceeded to rummage through every available drawer and cabinet.

"What are you doing?"

"Snooping."


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter Ten**

"This is, like, so gross," Kitty groaned.

"And whose fault is that?" Lance asked, rolling his eyes.

"Shut it, we're alive," Harry yelled at them.

"I don't know what y'all complaining about," Toad said, taking deep lungfuls of the rank air.

Sparks from Harry's wand hit the back of his head.

"Oh my God, a ladder!" Kitty said, pointing through the darkness.

"But is it safe topside?" Lance asked.

"We won't know unless we go up and look," Harry answered, climbing onto the ladder with Kitty close behind.

When he reached the top of the ladder, he used Wingardium Leviosa to move the manhole cover quietly. He heard footsteps retreating echo through the street above. He sped up the last few rungs to get a glimpse of who it was before they could disappear in the fog.

Whoever it was turned back just before the fog closed in around them; they wore a long cloak and mask that was all too familiar to Harry. The Death Eater let out a loud cackle, then ran through the mist.

Harry climbed from the manhole and helped the others out, his mind reeling. "What was that sound?" Lance asked.

"There was a Death Eater there," Harry answered, pointing in the general direction. Could Death Eaters have caused everything that had happened in Silent Hill?

********

"Okay, we've got all the stale cookies and chips we need to last a few days," Kurt said, hoisting his heavy pack over his shoulder.

"Now let's get back to the flat before something comes after us," Ron said.

They'd only made it a dozen yards out of the convenience store when the static sound began on Kurt's radio. Hermione glared at Ron. "You just had to say something, didn't you."

"Get off the road!" Kurt said, and pulled them into a darkened side street.

"Yeah, into the dark is safer," Ron groaned.

The static grew louder as they stood still. "Run!" Kurt said, then they ran down the alley.

********

"Woot!" Amera said as she reached on her tippy toes to grab something above the refrigerator. "But I can't-"

"Let me get it," Khadrim said, suddenly next to her and reaching easily into the cabinet. He was right behind her, and she was pressed up against the fridge. "Here," he said, handing her what she had been reaching for - a bottle of vodka.

"Thanks," she said, her heart hammering.

He pulled back and staggered back to his chair, leaving the blushing Amera standing in the kitchen.

"So what do you want that for anyway?" Khadrim asked, watching her as she came back to the living room and sat in her own rickety chair.

"To forget the past few days." She looked up at him and then took a drink straight from the bottle. She then held the bottle out to him.

"Forget..." he said, looking at the bottle. Finally he took it from her and took a gulp.

********

"I said I was sorry," Pietro said, having a glaring contest with Amara.

"Shh, what was that?" Fred suddenly said, walking to the window and opening it just a crack. Very faintly, they could hear the whimpering of a dog.

"It sounds hurt, poor thing," Amara said.

"Let's help it," Ginny said. Amara proceeded to rummage through her pack for some food.

Dean opened the window farther to call out to the dog. "He's limping," he told the girls. "I can just see him-" He stopped speaking as another sound met their ears.

"And now it's growling," George observed. "Shut the window!"

Fred and Dean both yanked on the window, but it stopped after only a couple inches. "It's stuck!" Fred shouted. He waved his wand at it as well, but to no avail.

"Nice doggy," Dean said, as he continued to pull on the window. Then he yelled incomprehensibly as he and Fred both ran back from the opening. Dean didn't make it very far.

The "dog", having jumpedd through the window, was grotesque; muscly sinew covered its body,uponn which it had no skin whatsoever. It had a long tongue and sharp teeth, which were now digging into Dean's flesh and ripping out his throat in stringy, bloody hunks.

"GO!" Hank yelled, and the others ran out the door opposite the window as fast as possible.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter Eleven**

"They've been gone way too long," Khadrim said, not actually caring, but stating a simple fact. His buddy Gray Goose had made him warm and worry free.

"Yep," Amera said, taking another drink from the bottle. After a long moment of silence, she said, "We're going to die."

"No, we're not," he said. Uh-oh, worry is coming back.

"Yeah we are," she continued. "We're going to die here, terrified and not with the person we love."

So you think... Khadrim thought. "Well, I'm sorry you couldn't die together," he said, thinking bitterly of Kurt.

"What, Kurt?" she asked, looking at him as he took a drink. "No, I don't think I love him. He's great... But I think he's just the rebound guy. Which is sad, because I think he's really in love with me, and I don't love him back."

Khadrim stared at her. "Mmm," was all he could say.

"What about you, Mr. I'm-too-good-for-anyone-here?" she asked.

"Say what now?"

"You heard me," she spat. "You're like, the hottest guy at school and you won't even go out with anyone, you could have, like, any girl you want - Oh my God, I sounded like Kitty just now, like, totally." She giggled a bit.

"No, I can't have the girl I want, because when I met her I thought she was in love, but now I'm not so sure," he said.

"Wait... That hurt my head..." Amera laughed. Then she got serious again. "Doesn't matter." She got out of her chair and sat on the floor. "Ah, that's more comfy... We're gonna die without finding 'the one' anyway, so who cares."

Khadrim was on the floor next to her in an instant. "I care. We're not going to die. I won't let anything happen to you." He put his hand on hers. "I love you." Then he realized he must be really drunk if he actually admitted that. Ah, the hell with it. He said it again.

She stared at him, comprehension seeping through the alcohol and into her brain. He loves me? But I love him too! What do I do now? He said it again! My head hurts. God, I'm gonna have a wicked hangover. Wait, I'm dating Kurt! Kurt... He's looking at me... And... And...

Amera kissed him with everything she had. He kissed her back with just as much.

********

"It's getting dark," Kitty observed, stating the obvious.

"Guys, let's stay in here tonight!" Lance said, staring at a sign.

"What now?" Toad asked. "Is there food in there?"

"Better," Lance said.

"Nothing's better than food..." Toad replied as his stomach let loose a loud gargle.

"Weapons," Harry said with a smile, now looking at the sign. It read_ Silent Hill Police Department. _"Great."

"I still say food-"

"We're all hungry, Toad!" Kitty snapped at him.

They walked up to the door. "Locked of course, and Aloho-" Harry started but was shoved aside.

Kitty phased through the door and unlocked it from the inside. "Good thing I'm here to help you manly men out."

"And there's no monsters!" Toad said happily.

"Nope, haven't heard any since, like, Pyramid Head." Kitty looked down at her communicator, and her smile faded. "Oh Hell."

"What?" Toad asked.

"Um, the batteries. They're, um, dead." Kitty muttered.

"Stay alert," Harry instructed. "There might be monsters in here after all."

********

"Dead end!" Kurt yelled at the wall. "Vhy vasn't there a freaking sign then!"

"Bloody hell," Ron said, back to the wall. He was white as a ghost, his hand gripping Hermione's.

A large ape-like creature with two grotesque heads was searching for them in the fog.

"Secumsempra," she whispered. "We'll have to use Sectumsempra."

"But we've never used-"

"I know, but we have to try, Ron!"

The creature finally spotted them and surged forward at an alarming speed.

"Shitshitshitshitshit-" Ron said, clenching his teeth.

"Sectum-" Hermione started.

"Hang on!" Kurt yelled, grabbing them both by the elbow. He then teleported, taking them with.

Ron looked ready to faint when the reached their new destination, another alley. "Where'd it go?"

"Ron, _we_ went somewhere," Hermione said, just as matter-of-factly as ever, though she sounded terrified as well.

"I just don't know vhere," Kurt said. "I had to, but ve could have ended up stuck in a vall or in front of another monster-"

"Yeah... Please stop," Hermione said, looking as pale as Ron now.

The radio then emitted the dreaded static.

"God damn it..." Kurt growled.

"Let's get inside somewhere," Hermione suggested. They headed out to the street and quickly began trying doors. Another sound soon joined the radio fuzz.

_Scrape._

"NO!" Hermione cried, then Ron grabbed her hand and they started to run.

********

"Left!" Bobby yelled as the group ran through the fog. They hadn't looked back to see if the dog was following them, but they were sure it would finish its meal. Static warned them that up ahead were creatures, so they followed Bobby's directions and went down the alley to the left.

"Pietro, go find a safe place ahead!" Hank called.

"Got it!" Pietro replied, then super speeded his way forward. He was back a moment later. "Follow me!" He went to the front of the group and led them to a small tea shop nestled in a small bundle of buildings.

Ginny slammed the door closed after she was inside, and the twins proceeded to put protective charms on it. As she sat on a dusty old sofa, she sighed, "I still don't understand what the hell is going on."

Hank sat in a chair at a small tea table. "When we figure it out, we'll be sure to tell you."

********

She abruptly pulled away from him and stood up. "I can't do this," she said, then swayed and landed back on her ass.

"You're right, I'm sorry," Khadrim said, then returned to his chair.

"I'm dating Kurt."

"Yes you are, that was very wrong of me-"

"Shut up."

"Okay."

Amera took a deep breath. "I'm dating Kurt. Kurt, the funny guy, Kurt, the sweet heart, Kurt... My best friend." She paused. "That's all he is. My friend. And I've been stringing him along..."

She was quiet for a long time, but Khadrim stayed quiet like she'd requested. When she finally spoke, she sounded like she was fighting terrified tears. "I was so... Scared, when you stayed behind to fight that worm thing. And when we got lost, and you weren't there..." She sniffled and rubbed her nose on her sleeve."I'm scared for Kurt, but... With you, I felt... Broken."

She looked at Khadrim and her heart, her body ached. "I am in love with you, and I am a horrible person."

Khadrim pulled himself back down to the floor next to her. "You're not a horrible person. Just confused and scared. And you know I love you."

She began to cry, then he kissed her with even more passion than the last.

********

"In here!" Kurt cried, ducking into an unlocked doorway and shutting it behind Ron.

"Do you think it saw us?" Hermione asked.

"I don't know," Kurt answered in a whisper. It was pitch black in here, so dark even he couldn't see anything. There was no static, so they assumed it was safe, but just to be safe they had best be quiet.

"It's dark in here," Ron said normally.

"Shh!"

"Sorry."

A loud clanging noise filled the room, then an "Ouch!" a second later.

"Ronald!"

"I said it was dark!"

"Yes, that much is obvious, and that's why you stay still-"

"Shut up so ve can listen for it!"

"Well, it definitely heard that!"

"Oh, come off it!"

"SHUT UP!"

********

"I vote we stay here tonight," George said, kicking up a cloud of dust as he sat on another old sofa. The tea shop had a homey feel to it, if you ignored all the dust and blood.

"I concur," Pietro said, sitting in a chair and putting his heels on the table in front of it.

"Dean's... Gone..." Ginny mumbled, tears sparkling in her eyes. She didn't let them fall.

"You guys knew him well then?" Bobby asked.

"Oh no, English teenaged wizards abound all over the world, didn't you know?" Fred snapped.

"He was my ex-boyfriend." Ginny said. "How did we get here? How did he?" A thought suddenly pushed its way into her head. "What if Harry's here too?"

The mutants all exchanged glances. "Travels with a know-it-all witch?" Pietro asked.

"And a red-head, hey, looks kinda like you guys!" Bobby said.

"You hit your head as a child, didn't you," Hank said, gaping at him.

"Oh great, the world's doomed if Harry's stuck here too," Fred grumbled.


	12. Chapter 12

**Note from Author: **For those of you who haven't read my other X-Men fic, Logan is Amera and her siblings' father. Yep. You do have to know that much about things... Now that I've spoiled that tidbit for you... maybe you don't even want to try my other fic now! *harrumph* Please read the other one! I promise it gets good around chapter 12 or so! *beg beg* Okay, now I'm going to stop being a whiner baby and give you the new chapter!

* * *

**Chapter Twelve**

Lance edged forward into the relative darkness of the hallway with Kitty's flashlight blazing ahead, Harry at his side with his wand tip lit as well. Kitty and Toad followed close behind. "In there," Lance said, voice barely a whisper.

Harry pointed his wand at the door to his left and slowly turned the knob.

Screams rent the air from within, making the four in the hallway shout as well.

"I don't vant to die!"

"Bloody hell!"

"Oh my God!"

It was all Harry could do to not start throwing hexes all over the room. After a moment, the screaming stopped and everyone present realized they recognized each other.

"Ron? Hermione?"

"Kitty?"

"Blue boy!"

"Bloody hell, Harry," Ron said, gasping for breath. "We thought you were Pyramid Head!"

"You're not dead!" Harry said to Hermione, relieved that she hadn't died in the well.

"Not for lack of monsters trying," she said bitterly.

"Did you say Pyramid Head?" Kitty whimpered. She clutched onto Lance's arm. "Is he around here?"

"Vell, yah, he vas chasing us vhen ve ducked in here," Kurt said. "But there's no more static, so he must have left."

"Oh, wonderful," Lance groaned.

"Izzat the thing that chased us at the hotel?" Toad asked. Harry nodded.

"Let's find the guns already," Lance said, pulling Kitty along the hall with him. "Now we've got the elf's radio, we can hear anything coming again."

"Why would there be guns here?" Hermione asked as she followed behind the couple.

"It's a police station," Kitty explained. "I'm Kitty, by the way."

"Hermione, and this is Ron."

They all gathered into the old sheriff's office, and Lance, Harry, and Kurt made their way through the old papers and broken furniture to a locked cabinet standing at the far side of the room. Lance took a broken desk leg and smashed it into the old lock on the cabinet's doors. It swung open to reveal plenty of pistols and shotguns for all of them, with ammo to boot. "Jackpot," Toad said in awe.

*******

Pierce sat up in his bed, screaming. He slowly came to realize that he hadn't just had a horrible dream, but everything he'd seen was truly happening. It wasn't happening to just anyone, however. It was happening to his triplet sister, Amera. He could see everything with such clarity, he felt as though he too had been there beside her. Only moments later, Professor Xavier rolled into his room in his wheelchair. "Professor-"

"I saw it myself, Pierce, you projected it into my own dreams without knowing it," Xavier explained. He looked extremely worried about the welfare of his students that were in mortal danger.

Soon, Logan and Pierce's boyfriend, Oliver, ran into the room. "What happened?" Oliver demanded. "Are you okay?"

"What's goin' on, Chuck?" Logan asked. "You okay, kid?"

"Amera and the others are in trouble, there's zombies everywhere, and so many bodies, and blood..." Pierce hyperventilated and hurled over the edge of his bed.

Oliver stared at his boyfriend as Logan turned to Xavier. "Charles?"

"It sounds crazy, I know, Logan, but it's the truth. Gather the X-Men and get going in the helicopter," Xavier commanded.

"I'm going too," Pierce said, throwing off his blanket and starting to undress. His training uniform lay only a few feet away on top of his dresser.

"I don't think-" Logan began.

"MY SISTER IS IN TROUBLE AND I'M GOING!" Pierce shouted at him. Then he quieted down. "I don't care if you are my father, I'm going."

Xavier sighed, but looked resigned. "If you must."

"Just..." Pierce said, even quieter still. "Don't tell Danel? Please?" No need to worry the other sister.

Xavier nodded. Logan sighed and left to get the X-Men awake and ready.

"Then I'm going too," Oliver said.

"No, you're not," Pierce and Xavier said in unison.

"I'm not letting my boyfriend go get killed by zombies!" Oliver said with an immature huff.

"You forget that I have regenerative powers," Pierce said. "No reason for you to go with and get killed." He finished changing into his uniform and stepped up to Oliver. He kissed him softly, then left the room without another word.

*******

It felt like a hammer was smashing into a brick while the brick was smashing into her forehead when Amera awoke the next morning. She didn't open her eyes or attempt to move, but she was awake. She'd rather be dead. No, wait, she didn't, she remembered, because that wish could easily be arranged.

She dared a peek out of her left eye and immediately closed it, the light was so blindingly bright. She decided to just lay there, because if she tried sitting up, she'd probably throw up the stale chips she'd eaten the night before. She then became aware of something very, very wrong.

She was naked.

Shit, she thought. What the hell am I naked for? She tried to remember, but it made the brick pound her skull even harder, so she tried not thinking anymore. That worked for a moment, but then memories of the night before were all that was in there. Khadrim kissing her, kissing him back... But what about Kurt, and why am I naked... Khadrim's hands on her body, her clothes coming off, Khadrim's clothes were gone...

Her eyes flew open and she sat bolt upright. Immediately afterward, she tossed her chips all over the floor next to the bunk. She leaned on her left hand as she pushed her hair out of her face with her right. She took a deep breath and turned around. Khadrim slept beside her, just as stark naked as she was, only minus the blanket coverage. Damn, he's got tight abs... and whoa, that's nothing to sneeze at...

She pulled her mind out of the gutter and flew out of the bed to the bathroom, stumbling along the tent, trying not to collapse. She felt so dirty.

She'd cheated.

*******

A wretched smell woke Ginny from her place on the couch, but she didn't dare make any sudden movements, not here. She opened her left eye and looked in that direction to see a dark figure hunched beside her, only inches away. Panic started to well up inside her... Pietro had been sleeping on the floor next to her that night, but that was definitely not anyone she knew.

Then came the slurping and crunching sounds. The thing was eating something else. She dared to look down at the floor. Pietro looked like he was sleeping peacefully, even with this hulking mass on top of him. Ginny wasn't fooled. She knew he was dead, and the creature next to her was devouring him like a fat kid eats Ho Ho's. Ho Ho's that smelled like blood and slightly rotting flesh.

Something flew at the creature from her peripheral vision and she let out her suppressed scream. The creature let out a roar and dropped the piece of Pietro it had been gnawing on, preparing to attack whatever had attacked it. Then a shotgun blast roared from a few feet behind her and to her right. The creature's head exploded into a mist of red and splattered all over her.

She smudged at her face with a slightly clean part of her sleeve to get the wetness off. She scrambled over the back of the sofa and into the arms of her twin brothers, George was holding the warm shotgun. "Time to go," he grunted.

*******

Khadrim woke with a horrible headache, but nothing he couldn't handle. He stretched and sat up, realizing with a start that he was naked. Then he remembered what he and Amera had done last night. He heard the shower running, and he stood, throwing his pants on as he walked to the bathroom door.

He opened the door and leaned on the frame. "Trying to drown yourself in there?"

"Thinking about it," came the response from behind the shower curtain. "Just... no more of anything... not until I can find Kurt and break up with him."

Khadrim stared at the floor. "Sure," he said. "What if we find..."

"Don't even say that," Amera grumbled. "Just don't."

He walked out of the tent, pulling his shirt on as he went, limping on his injured leg. He wished he could be stronger than this injury, have regenerative powers, something. The water behind him turned off.

A few minutes passed and Amera joined him, dressed in her clothes she'd worn in the crash, which she'd washed in the bathtub. Her hair was still damp, and he could smell the cleanliness of her, it was an intoxicating scent... No, he'd promised to wait, he'd push this feeling back, far back into the recesses of his mind.

A humming sound reverberated through the air. "What the hell?" he said, looking out the window. As always, the only thing he could see was the street, dimly, and a hell of a lot of fog. The humming evolved into a chopping sound. "A helicopter?" he mumbled.

"What?" Amera was by his side in an instant. "That noise?"

"Has to be," he said. he looked up to the sky, but there was nothing, like he'd expected. But the noise was getting louder. And it was also coming in sporadic bursts. It was cutting out. "It's not going to last long..." Then he realized that, judging from the volume of the helicopter, it was right above their building. "Shit," he said, just as the rotors above were silenced.

"What's happen-"

He grabbed her and threw her to the ground, covering her with his own body. Then their world was shattered. Large chunks of the roof fell on top of them, bricks and drywall and wood piled above them and around them. Miraculously, the floor didn't give out.

They stayed beneath the rubble for a few long minutes until Amera gasped. Khadrim looked down at her, expecting to see something wrong, something broken, some blood... but the she said, "Pierce!"

"What?" he said, then she was trying to push her way out from under him. "What are you doing?"

"The helicopter!" she said, pushing on some drywall fragments. It fell away with relative ease and Khadrim could see the sky past the broken roof above. She scrambled over the pile, and Khadrim followed her. The kitchen appliances had fallen over and were half buried in rubble as well. The kitchen wall had a good sized hole in it, and the building beyond that wall had disappeared. There had been another apartment there before. Amera climbed through the gap and onto what remained of the next door floor.

Khadrim reached the edge of the hole and looked down at the helicopter. Fires were burning all around it, it could blow at any minute, and it was lodged between the two floors beneath them, laying awkwardly on its side. The front window had spider webbed, so Khadrim couldn't see who was inside. He looked at Amera, who started putting out the fires using her powers, the first time she'd used them in Silent Hill that he knew of. She gathered the water vapor in the air and concentrated it on the flames, putting them out one by one. "Why did you say your brother's name?" Khadrim asked.

She looked at him then back at what she was doing. "He's in the helicopter. So is Logan. And the other X-Men. We have to get them out of there."


End file.
